Scintilla
by Syrasha
Summary: He's a genius and all she can do is try, but in her defense, she tries really, really hard. Fuji/OC
1. prologue

For this chapter, _italics_ means it's in Japanese.

* * *

From: Riley Smith  
To: Quinn Palmer  
CC: Jordan Elliott  
May 22nd

 **Your Application for Youth Exchange**

Good afternoon Quinn,

I'm sorry to have kept you waiting this long. I know it must have been nervewracking for you. However, I am pleased to announce that the delay has not been without good cause. It is my absolute pleasure to tell you that you have been accepted as our representative to Japan this year! I've copied your Japanese teacher to this email to share the good news.

You'll be responsible for the airfare and you can find a job once you get there for spending money if you so choose, but we'll take care of visa fees, housing, school, and everything else. I don't have many details now, but you'll get them when I do.

Congratulations Quinn! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and it's probably a good idea to start intensive Japanese tutoring under Ms. Elliott.

Riley Smith  
Youth Exchange Coordinator

* * *

From: Riley Smith  
To: Quinn Palmer  
July 12th  
 **  
Details on Your Exchange**

It is my pleasure to tell you that we finally have a little more information about where you'll be! You'll be living with one other exchange student in a mid-sized apartment just two bus stops away from where you'll be attending school. Your roommate won't be attending the same school you are, but you'll be attending to Seishun Academy, commonly known to locals as Seigaku.

I attached the contact information for your roommate as well as a current student at Seigaku who was an exchange student herself. She said she'd be more than happy to answer any questions you had, and I thought it was a good idea to get the foot in the door with a friend before you even got on the plane.

Riley Smith  
Youth Exchange Coordinator

* * *

From: Quinn Palmer  
To: Valerie Majumdar  
July 13th  
 **  
New Roommates?!**

Hi Valerie!

I'm Quinn and Riley (my exchange coordinator) spoke with your exchange coordinator and got me your contact info! I just wanted to say I'm really excited to live with you and I can't wait to spend a year abroad! Was Japan your first choice too?

Quinn

* * *

From: Quinn Palmer  
To: Airi Nakano  
July 17th  
 **  
Seishun Academy**

 _Hi Nakano-san,_

 _I'm Quinn, and I'm not really sure if you'll want to call me Palmer-san or whether Quinn will work just fine. Really either is okay with me. I've never really been good at talking in real life, so we'll see if I'm any better in a virtual medium._

 _I'm eighteen (birthday last week!) and just out of my senior year of high school. My Japanese should really be better than it is considering how many exchange students I've been friends with. I imagine your English is way better. Our teacher said you'd probably been studying English more than twice as long as we've been working on Japanese. I'm pretty sure that if you were here and I tried to say your first name you'd laugh. My written Japanese is much better, mostly because of those few exchange students I mentioned. We used to pass notes in class in Japanese, and everyone would think we were keeping secrets, but mostly it was just her correcting everything I did wrong._

 _My teacher told me if I had any questions about school I could direct them to you because we were classmates. I don't really have any, but I figured it couldn't hurt to introduce myself._

 _Quinn_

 _PS: Oh! Riley (my exchange coordinator on this end) said you were an exchange student yourself! Where did you go?_

* * *

From: Nakano Airi  
To: Palmer Quinn  
July 25th

RE: **Seishun Academy**

 _I do apologize for taking so long to respond. Our first term just ended and we've been very busy. You're very right, your written Japanese is quite good. Teacher told me you were top of your class in Japanese._

 _I'm Nakano Airi, but you can just call me Airi-chan if you want. If calling you Quinn makes you feel more comfortable, I don't mind that at all! I'm seventeen, just a little younger, and happy belated birthday. If that's your only question, then my job is much easier than I thought. I studied in Norway, and it really feels like centuries ago._

 _I look forward to being your classmate! Feel free to let me know if any other questions do come up. There's a lot to do at school and we are in Tokyo after all, so I don't think you'll ever be bored here! I'm usually near a computer, so don't be shy!_

 _Airi-chan!_

* * *

Things went so slow until they didn't, and Quinn Palmer's life had suddenly taken a turn for the very, very fast. After months and months of waiting on the _excruciatingly_ relaxed Riley Smith, she started to get some answers, and after she got those answers, it was like months of her life were flying by. In May, she hadn't even been sure she was going to be able to go anywhere. After working the entire year to finance an exchange opportunity, they said it might not be possible, and in a panic, Quinn told them she didn't care where they sent her as long as she got to go _somewhere_. All that work at Japanese be damned, she'd worked similarly hard for the opportunity, and she was going to get to go _somewhere_ or die trying.

Her parents hadn't understood why she'd wanted to take a year off between high school and college rather than going abroad _in_ high school or college, but they didn't really have to understand. This way Quinn had gotten to graduate with her class, and come college, she could focus on internships and the like. This was the ideal plan, as far as Quinn was concerned.

Packing the suitcase, though, it was hard not to feel a little heartsick before she'd even left. Excited though she was, Quinn ached a little as her cat climbed into what she'd packed, snuggling himself between a bra and a make-up case. Mewling followed as he flicked his tail against Quinn's nose, annoyed that she hadn't immediately followed with affection. With feelings heavy and light all at once, Quinn shooed the little gray-haired monster away, giving him a little kiss on the forehead as a goodbye. A year seemed like so long, and even though her mom would still have her sister, it felt a lot like she was abandoning them to be alone.

When her sister, Ellie, swept in, though, light on her feet like Quinn never could be, and they both fell to the floor in a heap of limbs and laughter, Quinn couldn't help but smile. "I'll miss you, sis, but if you don't have the time of your life, I'll never forgive you," her sister said. The grin Quinn received was so sweet it could make anyone sick, but the threat was still there.

"What if we go to one last movie before I leave? Go see if Mom's busy." The words came out of Quinn's mouth before she could stop them, and Ellie cocked an eyebrow, feeling out whether this was an excuse to put off packing a little longer. "All that's left to go in there is a few knick-knacks lying in my bedroom window," Quinn said, and that seemed to assuage Ellie. The fifteen-year-old skipped out of the room in much the way she'd entered it, calling out for their mother who was a little more reserved in her response. Quinn sighed and sat back, looking at the room around her and trying to come to terms with being gone from it for a year.

"Mom says the drive-in starts in an hour and it's a triple feature but we aren't going unless you've weighed your luggage and everything!" Ellie popped her head in and out almost as fast as Quinn could register her.

"Five minutes and I'm ready!" Quinn latched the suitcase and glanced through her carry-on one last time, tossing the knick-knacks from her bedroom window into the latter. She hoped the apprehension would dissipate upon having a little fun with her family, because the last thing Quinn wanted was to not be able to sleep the night before what seemed a monumental adventure's start.

The last thing Quinn saw before leaving the room was their little gray monster, curled up on top of the suitcase now that he couldn't crawl into it.

* * *

 **whoa welcome back to anime-land alexis. i read coffeelatte's surrealistically wonderful _it's all_ _greek_ and fell in love with prince of tennis all over again, and i watched about five episodes of the anime before making the kind of impulse decision i'm known for. i know the exchange student trope is kind of cliche, but i wanted to write it because my experiences as an exchange student were SO formative for me as a person. obviously i've aged them all up to high school because i'm twenty and i don't want to write about fourteen-year-olds falling in love because it makes me feel icky.**

 **(seriously if you're ever looking for something good to read and you love atobe keigo like i do go read _it's all greek_ because it may all be greek but it's also goddamn good)**

 **i hope you enjoyed! this chapter is but a measly prologue so hopefully the next one will have a little more meat in it. please read and review if you do feel so inclined. :)**

 **-syrasha**


	2. 1: extemporize

Valerie Majumdar had never liked flying, and she had done a _lot_ of it. Both her parents had immigrated to the United States from India only a year before she was born, so they'd traveled back plenty of times in her short seventeen years. The only comfort this time was that at least she'd be meeting her roommate for the year before ever boarding the plane.

Well, it could be a comfort, she supposed. It could also be a disaster.

Valerie sighed and ran a hand through her hair, flicking her eyes down to her phone to check the picture of the girl who was supposed to be in the seat next to her. The flight was boarding in ten minutes, and there had been no sign of the other exchange student, Quinn.

Valerie had to admit that she wasn't as nervous about this as she thought she'd be. Her Japanese wasn't great, but she was a pretty quick study, and both her parents worked so much anyway that she hardly saw them when she was home, so it wasn't really surprising.

With luck, she'd at least make them proud.

The announcer came on over the loudspeaker to start the plane boarding, and Valerie sent a somewhat worried look over her shoulder as she stood in line. She hadn't even met the girl yet, and already she was stressing over this Quinn Palmer.

* * *

All of the fear of the night before had evaporated as catastrophe after catastrophe had left Quinn spiraling further and further into desperation. They were supposed to leave at 9:45 in the morning, but at 9:40, Quinn and Ellie's mother had suddenly realized the keys to the car were nowhere to be found. After twenty minutes of frantic searching (which wound up with them discovering the keys in the car itself), they finally pulled out of the driveway, and half an hour from home, Quinn came to the horrific realization that her passport was sitting on the kitchen counter.

Needless to say, the flight left at one, and Quinn and company ran into the airport at about noon, and an hour wasn't nearly enough time to feel comfortable about getting through airport security. In some ways, though, Quinn supposed she was grateful for these turns of events. The goodbyes felt rushed, but at least she didn't have time to think about the way her sister's fingers were shaking as they embraced.

At least she only wound up at a wrong gate once before (finally) squeezing onto the plane to Los Angeles that was the first stop on the way to Tokyo. Embarrassed and squeezing past the flight attendant who was giving information about safety procedures, Quinn finally slid her carry-on into the compartment above and slid into her seat. Exhaling a breath she didn't even know she was holding, Quinn finally made eye contact with the wide-eyed girl next to her.

"It's been a wild ride and we haven't even left the ground yet," Quinn said, and Valerie laughed nervously. Disheveled hair that looked like it probably hadn't been its natural color in five years, fingernails chewed down to the nub, and a crazed look in her eye, Quinn looked precisely the opposite of cool and composed Valerie. "I'm Quinn and it's so nice to finally meet you! E-mail only can last for so long you know."

Valerie took Quinn's extended hand, and the girls smiled at one another. "I'm excited to live with you," Quinn continued, "I think we'll get along great!"

Suddenly, the ground rumbled under them, and Valerie's eyes went wide as she gripped the armrests. At Quinn's questioning look, Valerie mumbled, "Scared of flying," if not a little sheepishly.

"I've never actually flown before, so it would make sense if I was scared, but mostly I think I'm manically nervous about being in another country for so long," Quinn said, and Valerie couldn't help but notice that all Quinn's eye make-up was smudged as though she'd been crying.

* * *

"So what's the name of your school?" Quinn asked, sipping the obscenely-priced tea she'd bought to busy her hands.

"Hyotei Academy," Valerie sighed, "I did a little research on it and I'm pretty sure my parents had a hand in getting me placed there. It's like the wealthiest school in the region."

"Well that's gotta be cool, right? You'll probably have like, ice sculptures in the hallways."

Valerie laughed demurely. "I suppose. It's not the wealthy part that bothers me. It's more the fact that even this year, which was supposed to be my year to prove I could get by without them, they're influencing my life so much. Where are you going to school?"

"Seishun Academy. Couldn't find much on it except that they have a mad-skilled tennis program," Quinn answered.

"Do you play tennis?"

Quinn choked on her tea. "As if. I have no discernible talents whatsoever, in athletics least of all. I mean, I was never the worst, but I definitely had to work three times as hard as anybody else with a sliver of skill in order to do anything really right. Riley acts like I'm something bright because I was top of my class in Japanese but I was really just good friends with a couple exchange students and my school had a good program on top of that."

Their layover in Los Angeles was a lengthy twelve hours. The two had coordinated flights as best they could (meaning Quinn found the cheapest flight available and Valerie ordered a seat on the same one), but the time in California certainly took all the energy out of the both of them. The plane that would fly them to Japan was significantly bigger than the one that had flown them to LA. Quinn flicked a glance at Valerie, who had blanched the second they'd boarded the plane.

"You were uncomfortable before the last flight, but this time you actually look sick," Quinn noted, "Are you okay?"

Valerie nodded shortly. "Yes. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"We're flying over the _ocean_ this time, Quinn," Valerie snapped, "There's something about hanging over an endless expanse of blue water that makes me extra nervous."

Quinn raised her eyebrows so high that they almost reached her hairline that didn't match them. "Well geez, Val, you know it isn't technically endless…"

"Val?" Valerie looked at Quinn, puzzled. "Did you call me Val?"

"Well, yeah," Quinn said, "It's just a nickname. I don't have to call you that if you don't want."

Valerie found herself softly smiling. "No. Val is nice. People usually call me by my full name is all. I like Val."

"Then Val you are," Quinn grinned right back, happy that Valerie had, for the moment at least, forgotten her flight anxiety. "We should try to catch some sleep once we get up there. I don't know what your coordinator told you, but Riley said that we'd be busy from the moment we touch down. I'll probably be tired no matter what, of course, but I can at least try to be as awake as possible."

Despite her momentary relief from the anticipation of flying, Valerie dug her nails into Quinn's arm this time rather than the armrest. Quinn smiled despite it. "We're fine. I've got you. And if I don't, then well, nobody would have been able to stop whatever happened anyway."

They had certainly become fast friends, but Quinn was sure that they'd be thick as thieves before their time together was up. After all, she didn't think either of them could really handle being _truly_ alone abroad.

* * *

For her dainty demeanor, Valerie certainly didn't look it while she was sleeping. Quinn woke to drool on her arm and the shorter girl's head on her shoulder. Stretching out the crick in her neck, Quinn gently nudged the younger girl, who stirred slightly before pushing Quinn's face away and letting out the largest snore yet. Quinn snorted and flicked Valerie's forehead.

Startled awake, Valerie let out a yelp and sat straight up. Rubbing where Quinn had flicked, Valerie let out a tired sigh. "What, Quinn?"

"Well, I just thought you might be excited to know we were here, but if you don't care, go back to sleep. I'm sure they won't mind keeping you on for the return flight."

Valerie's eyes lit up, and like that she was plastered to the window. "I've been to Asia so many times," she said, so quietly that Quinn wasn't sure if it was even meant to be heard, "but we only ever went to India."

"Well, don't get too excited. It looks like it's going to take about three hours to get off this damn plane," Quinn said as the pilot came over the intercom. "Anyway, Riley said that there'd be someone there to show us the apartment once we touched down, so they should be there once we make it out of the terminal. Also, if it's bunk beds, dibs on top."

Valerie looked at her in horror. "You think they'll give us bunk beds?"

"No, but in the event that we should have bunk beds, I call the top one."

"If we have bunk beds, you can have both and I'll take the couch," Valerie sniffed.

"There is some fire in you after all, Val," Quinn teased, and as they finally got off of the plane, it really sank in for both of them. "Here's to a year of adventure."

They navigated security and the baggage claim, finally making it out of the terminal in a little under an hour, and they looked around for the representative that Riley had told Quinn would be present. "I don't see anyone…" Valerie mumbled under her breath. "Who just abandons two teenage girls like this?"

As if in answer to her question, an incredibly flustered girl popped through the crowd, a sign reading 'VALERIE AND QUINN' held at full arms-length above her head. Panting, the girl skimmed the flux of people coming out of the terminal, and Quinn pulled Valerie towards her.

"It's nice to meet you," Quinn said, abruptly switching to Japanese, and Valerie did a double take. Did the bubbly, disheveled girl she'd been talking to for the last forty-some hours really have Japanese that sounded so smooth? Valerie repeated her words, a little more clumsily, and the girl with the sign nodded with a chipper grin.

"I'm Nakano Airi! Something came up with the representative at the last minute so I was sent to show you around instead," she said, and recognition lit up Quinn's face.

"Oh! Airi-chan! It's so great to finally know what you look like!"

"Likewise, Quinn-chan. We'll probably be seeing a lot of each other, if I'm not mistaken." Airi laughed. "You two can come with me. Do you need me to take a bag or anything? I'm sure you're tired. I remember what it was like when I first landed in Norway, and my Norwegian was much worse than your Japanese is."

Valerie shook her head, and Quinn did the same. "Is the apartment far?" Valerie stuttered out.

"Not far at all, just a couple bus stops away. You're in the heart of the city, like I told Quinn." Airi's smile was radiant. "The apartment is quite close to Seigaku, but a little further from Hyotei. You'll have a few days to get settled in, but school starts Monday.

"I… I do have a question," Valerie said quietly.

"What's that?"

"Our apartment… are there bunk beds?"

Quinn stifled a laugh, and Airi looked puzzled. "Why would there be bunk beds?

* * *

"Excuse me, but why does my uniform make me look like I'm a knock-off Barbie doll and yours is adorable?" Quinn tugged at the pink bow on her chest, wrinkling her nose. Her eyes narrowed playfully as Valerie walked out of the bathroom they shared in the Hyotei uniform. "Yeah, look at you, you cute little bastard. You infuriate me."

Valerie giggled a little shyly, nevertheless feeling the compliment in her words without really answering. "Well, I have to go, Quinn. It's going to take me about twice as long to get to school as it takes you. Good luck." Valerie turned to wave bye and walked right into a tight hug that surprised her.

"Good luck to me? Good luck to you! Show those rich kids what's up!"

"You know I'm one of those rich kids, right?"

"Yeah but if we had had bunk beds you would have taken the bottom one, so you're different from all those other rich kids," Quinn winked, and walked Valerie to the door. "You can be the best!"

Valerie had walked fairly far away, but Quinn was certain that the other girl was giving her the finger. Quinn huffed good-naturedly, trying to still the nerves that were roiling up in her stomach. "It's fine," she mumbled to herself, "You're going to be fine." Looking in the mirror one last time before working up the courage to leave, Quinn wondered briefly if she should have nixed the bottled blonde for a while.

Luckily enough, Airi was waiting for her there at the bus stop, and Quinn had never been so happy to see a familiar face. Dissolving into a puddle of relief, Quinn gave Airi a brief hug. "I thought I was going to have to navigate this place alone."

Airi chuckled. "As if I'd do that to anyone new, let alone someone who very clearly has no idea what they're doing who is as charming as you are."

Quinn actually laughed at that. "Charming? You should talk to my mother. She'd let you know I'm a little abrasive at best."

The two walked into the building, chattering all along in a strange blend of Japanese and English. "I should let you know, though, we aren't classmates," Airi said, and Quinn's face fell. "I know you'll be fine but I also know it's really scary. I hear that class really has a pretty good dynamic, and your Japanese is good enough that I can't imagine you'll have any trouble getting along."

Despite Airi's chipper words, the feeling of dread that Quinn had lost upon seeing the Japanese girl had returned. Quinn swallowed hard before forcing a smile on her face, and Airi pointed to a sign above the door. "3-6! Here's your class!" Airi spoke with a small smile, but it faded upon seeing Quinn's terrified face. "Hey," Airi spoke again, "There's five minutes until class starts, so let me tell you a story. You know I studied abroad in Norway, right?" Quinn nodded at that. "Well, when I got there, I didn't speak any Norwegian at all. None. Zero Norwegian. For the first three months or so, I really just improved my English, because if anyone wanted something from me, they would talk to me in English because I spoke no Norwegian. I arrived there in August, and I had finally started to settle in and learn a little of the language by, oh, I think it was October or November. The time is really not important. I was talking to two girls in my class in Norwegian, finally, and someone casually said that I was from _China_." Quinn blinked in surprise before holding in a laugh. "I had been there since _August,_ and everyone thought I was from _China._ " Airi sighed and rubbed her temples at the memory. "Anyway, what I'm saying is, your first day can't be any worse than mine with how good your Japanese is. You'll do great, Quinn-chan."

Quinn smiled nervously, and then Airi was off, leaving the American alone. Holding her breath a little more than was maybe healthy, Quinn pushed into the room and tried to ignore the eyes. Smile stuck on, she glanced around the room. They seemed normal enough, just kids talking before lessons started who had looked up to see the foreigner who had walked in the room.

"Good morning, Yoshida-sensei. I'm Palmer Quinn. It's nice to meet you," Quinn bowed, and the teacher looked up from the papers he had been staring at, and Quinn was suddenly aware that he hadn't even noticed her until she had spoken.

The teacher introduced himself likewise, and then the lesson was starting and she was still in front of the class and it was making Quinn very self-conscious that everyone else had found a seat and she was still on display at the front of the room. Finally, he got around to introducing her.

"Class, this is Palmer Quinn. She's going to be studying with us this year. Would you like to tell the class a little bit about yourself, Palmer-san?"

"U-uh," Quinn stuttered as she started, and then tried to collect herself, "I'm Palmer Quinn. I'm eighteen, and I've graduated high school back in the United States." The girl felt herself shaking, and took a breath once to try to calm down. "I look forward to being classmates with you all."

The teacher seemed somewhat impressed, but Quinn was just glad the ordeal was over. She wasn't particularly shy, but public speaking certainly wasn't something she was comfortable with. Quinn exhaled, and made eye contact with a bright-eyed red-haired boy on the left side of the room, who gave her a toothy grin and a thumbs-up that relieved her more than she wanted to admit.

"Palmer-san." The teacher's voice reminded Quinn that she still was in the front and center of the room. "There's a seat open by Kikumaru-san that you're more than welcome to."

Quinn nodded and scanned the room for anyone who would own up to being "Kikumaru-san," and made eye contact once again with the redhead, who waved this time to acknowledge her and show her who he was. The teacher started lecturing before Quinn had made it to the seat, and when she finally made it there, she melted into the seat in relief.

"Yoshida-sensei still calls me Kikumaru-san, but you're more than welcome to call me Eiji. Everyone else does," was the first thing the redhead said upon her arrival, whispered to her while feigning complete attention to the lecture.

The American smiled. "You can call me Quinn, Eiji-kun."

It was funny. She had been really quite confident in her Japanese before coming here, but now, surrounded by native speakers, Quinn had lost all her nerve. She could only wonder at how Valerie must have been coping. Quinn herself was exhausted from trying to understand what was happening in class before lunchtime, and even though Eiji tried to help, he didn't seem particularly adept at English. He did, however, seem more than in tune with the game of charades she was likely to spend the year playing whenever she didn't remember a word.

"What made you want to come to Japan, Quinn-chan?" It was funny, hearing her name in that accent. Even in Japanese class at home, they had always swapped back to an American accent for names that were English.

Quinn shrugged. "I've studied Japanese since I was fourteen," she said, cursing the tremors in her voice, "And I was good friends with a few exchange students from Japan who attended my school."

"From Japan? Where were they from?"

"One was from Hokkaido and the other was from somewhere in Okinawa. I had a _huge_ crush on the one from Okinawa." Quinn laughed at the memory. "I was probably closer to Ami, though, the one from Hokkaido. We used to write notes back and forth in math class in Japanese so that if we got caught the teacher couldn't read them."

Eiji made for good company, and if Airi wasn't in her class, Quinn didn't know if she could have asked for a better substitute. Sometimes he was a little hard to follow because he spoke too fast, and sometimes he couldn't understand her because she'd been saying something that didn't translate quite right to Japanese, but he was more patient than she imagined possible. Sitting in the back corner of the room, the teacher either didn't notice the conversations, or didn't care, and before Quinn even knew it, the day was over.

The class started filing out, and next to her, Eiji shouted out, "Fujiko-chan! Wait up!" A delicate brown-haired boy looked back at Eiji, smiling and waiting, while the redhead asked Quinn, "Can you get to the bus okay?"

Quinn laughed. "I got here okay, didn't I? Besides, I think -" Right on cue, Airi popped up outside the door, waving frantically. "My friend is going to help me find my way home."

Eiji grinned at that. "See you tomorrow then, Quinn-chan," he said, and bounced off until he was step-in-step with the brown-haired boy he'd talked to before.

When Quinn stepped out, she was accosted by Airi, who flooded her with questions about the day. Quinn shot a glance over her shoulder to where Eiji was walking with his hands behind his head, talking animatedly to "Fujiko-chan."

"I have an idea!" Airi said suddenly, "What if I come over and you and me and Valerie all make traditional Japanese dinner together?" Quinn nodded enthusiastically, ignoring the fatigue in her limbs that hinted at her jet lag not being totally gone yet. "If you need to, we can speak English tonight, too. I know it can get exhausting."

Quinn nodded a second time. Airi was right. This was already harder than she had thought it would be, but she'd come out of it with a friend by her side, another as her seatmate, and one more that at least was sort of sharing her experience.

"What kind of traditional Japanese dinner are you thinking?"

"I was thinking we'd start with an appetizer of baked American…" Airi said, and Quinn shot her a glance, wondering if something had been lost in translation, only to lose it in laughter at Airi's grin.

* * *

 **who's! ready! for! some! slow! burn! (i'm always ready for slow burn so it's a trick question it doesn't really matter if you're ready or not) i got four follows on the first chapter alone, and that made me super happy! i'm glad four people found this story worth wanting to know if there is ever a second chapter. this one has significantly more content, and i really hope you guys are liking quinn so far. i would love to know what you think! thanks for reading!  
**

 **-syrasha**


	3. 2: agog

"Look, you're really close, just try one more time!" Quinn encouraged Valerie, who was on her fourth cup of coffee. Amusedly, Quinn thought Valerie must look similar to how Quinn looked herself when they'd first met on that plane almost two weeks ago. All amusement drained from her mood when Valerie made eye contact with the blonde.

"I've been bilingual since I was four, and I can tell you that this is certified bullshit, Quinn." Valerie had soured considerably since they had started studying about an hour and a half earlier. "You had told me that this would be easy!" She tossed the pencil she'd been using at Quinn's face, and the blonde took it straight to the nose.

Quinn frowned. "I never said it'd be _easy_. I said anybody could do it if they tried hard enough." Quinn paused, and Valerie huffed, crossing her arms. "Tell you what, if you can get it right, we'll quit for the night, and take tomorrow off."

Valerie squinted at her friend, tutor, and roommate, who tossed the pencil back at her and nodded at the paper. Quinn spoke again. "Your accent is a lot better than mine, and you're really, really lucky. You just don't have much vocabulary and you're nervous about speaking. It gets way easier the more you use it."

"Don't lecture me, you gigantic word nerd."

Quinn laughed. "I know you think I'm lying, but I only got good at this after practicing for like six years, Val. You're way ahead of where I was when I'd only been studying it a year."

* * *

They had been in school around a week, and Eiji was barely pretending to pay attention in class anymore. He had so much energy, Quinn wondered how anyone kept up with him. Quinn herself, though, had to invest 100% and then some more in order to keep up with any lecture, much less understand what she was being taught. It was unimaginable how difficult it might have been if Quinn hadn't already graduated high school. She had grown quite fond of the redhead, but she did occasionally want to hit him just hard enough to knock some sense into him.

"Say, Quinn-chan," Eiji said, pausing from the steady stream of conversation he'd been keeping up with himself as he ate, "Do you play any sports?"

Quinn barked out a laugh, the silent hope that maybe lunch would bring a little quiet evaporating into the air. "If falling down is a sport, sure. Why? Do you?"

"Tennis!" He pounded his chest a little dramatically. "Why do you think I run off with Fujiko-chan after class every day?"

Quinn flicked a glance to the brown-haired boy. He was surrounded by girls all too often, or at least it seemed, so considering that he didn't ever particularly give them much of his time. "He plays tennis? He looks like I could break him if I ran into him a little too hard," Quinn said. Eiji looked at Quinn, then to Fuji, and back again.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and once again they were down the rabbit hole of figuring out whether she had miscommunicated in Japanese, he had misunderstood her accent, or he just didn't understand what she'd said for some other reason.

"Anyway! We have placement matches tonight! You should come watch!" Eiji exclaimed.

"Placement matches? Where are they placing you?" Quinn tilted her head to the side, a movement Eiji mimicked.

"Well, we can only have eight regulars. We play a tournament once every couple of months to decide who the regulars will be. I do better with friends watching, so you should show up!" His grin split his face wide open, and it was infectious to boot. Quinn returned it with a gentle one of her own. Eiji looked thoughtful for a moment. "As long as you cheer for me, of course! Our freshman already has his own fan club!" He said the word 'freshman' with a tone of wonder.

"I'm excited to see how our freshman does," Quinn heard a voice from behind them. "Having him in the mix has certainly made things interesting." She turned and made eye contact (well, kind of) with the beautiful brown-haired boy who had apparently left the swarms of girls always around his desk at lunchtime behind.

"Eh, Fujiko-chan, this is Quinn-chan! Sometimes her Japanese is bad but she tries!"

Quinn felt her cheeks turning red. "Like your English is so great, Eiji-kun…"

"What's that, Palmer-san? You were mumbling." If she didn't know better, Quinn would think the brown-haired boy was teasing her.

Her blush burned brighter. "Nothing. A pleasure to meet you, Fuji-san."

"Likewise," Fuji said. He smiled, or at least, she thought he was smiling. That seemed to just be his resting face.

"What's the big deal about this freshman? Freshmen played on our athletics teams all the time back home." Quinn paused thoughtfully. "But, I guess in all fairness, our athletics teams were all terrible…"

"Freshmen usually aren't even considered for a regular position. The last one who was considered as a freshman was our captain." Quinn blinked at Fuji's words.

"…I guess your captain's good then?"

Fuji chuckled. "Very."

"So what do you say, Quinn-chan?"Eiji's pleading turned Quinn back around to face him, and the cat-faced boy gave a pout.

Quinn sighed and leaned back in her chair, bleach blonde hair falling over the back of it. Absently, she thought that she probably should have pulled it up today. She let her head loll to the side, and she sighed, faking annoyance. "What time are they? The matches?"

Quinn had thought that Eiji's smile couldn't have gotten any wider, but it did, and within moments, Quinn's face was clutched to Eiji's chest, caught in an impenetrable embrace. "Nyaaa, today and tomorrow, right after school!" The blonde flailed her arms, trying and failing to get away from him for a little longer than necessary before finally breaking free.

"Yeah, okay. I'll be there."

* * *

Eiji really was like a cat, and in more ways than one. He looked like one, sure, and he even played tennis like one. Also like a cat, he often found himself inexplicably attached to people for no reason whatsoever besides their aura. Fuji was a reserved kind of friendly, reliable but not overbearing and always good for a laugh. Oishi was like a big brother, not that Eiji's family wasn't large enough already.

Quinn was a little different from everyone else in that she just seemed extraordinarily unextraordinary, even given her apparent gift for Japanese. If she weren't foreign, Eiji wasn't certain he would have noticed her at all. Of course, this was even more apparent when she was standing next to Fuji, who exuded perfection in every way. Eiji wasn't particularly observant, but he felt things.

Kind of like a cat.

* * *

"It's spread out over two days so people can get a little rest between matches. I usually play doubles with my partner, but the placement matches are all singles, and honestly singles is a little lonely so-" Quinn stopped listening to Eiji's unstoppable stream of word vomit just long enough to cast a helpless glance to Fuji, who only chuckled. "Eh, Fujiko-chan, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, Eiji. Nothing at all."

Quinn scowled, if not good-naturedly. It looked like the skinny boy wasn't going to be the ally she had hoped. "Full disclosure," she said in the interlude, "I don't know anything about tennis."

That was the wrong thing to say, because it set Eiji off on another monologue, and Quinn had to stop herself from visibly sighing. "Eiji," Fuji interjected, "I'm sure she'll figure it out." Quinn flashed him a small, grateful smile. Japanese was hard enough as it was, much less understanding the words that were coming out of Eiji's mouth at light-speed. Fuji, at least, seemed to have the awareness to slow down when Quinn was around. She thought she remembered hearing him speak in class, and Fuji's words had sounded much faster then.

She said bye to them so that they could change for these matches that apparently were the most important thing on school grounds, judging by the number of people around. "Good luck Eiji-kun, Fuji-san." Quinn smiled brightly at the both of them, and Fuji nodded with the smile that never left his face while Eiji gave her a hug that probably took three years off her lifespan.

"When I play Fujiko-chan, Quinn-chan, don't forget who was your friend first, ne?" Eiji winked at her and bounced away, Fuji trailing shortly behind, neither of them paying her any mind as she tried to find the words to ask which court they were playing on. Quinn rolled her eyes.

"Good to know boys are still dumb even in Japan…" She trailed off as her phone rang and turned her back to the tennis courts to answer it. "Hello?"

" _Quinn! Are you okay?"_ That was Val on the other end, and on hearing her voice, Quinn switched to English.

" _Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?"_ Quinn raised an eyebrow to no one in particular, looking around nervously as Val sounded like she had just found out Quinn hadn't in fact been mugged and murdered.

" _You idiot! You didn't come home at the normal time and, ditz that you are, I figured you'd gotten hit by a car or something!"_

Quinn ran her hand through her hair and sighed. " _I'm fine, Val. Some classmates of mine are playing tennis and I came to watch them. I'm really fine, but I don't know for sure when I'll be home."_

Valerie huffed over the line, and said, " _Don't scare me like that again, Quinn. I know you've got friends here already, but if I lose you, all I've got is the stupid cat that follows me to school in the mornings."_

" _So selfless,Val. I'll see you later."_

" _Should I wait for you for dinner?"_

" _No, I don't have any idea when I'll be home."_

" _Okay. Have fun. Check out some cute guys for me."_

Quinn chuckled and hung up. Valerie had no siblings, and despite Quinn being a year older, had made it her goal to take care of the blonde the way an older sibling might. Come to think of it, she was probably older than almost everyone in her class as well. She looked around once more, scanning the courts for brilliant red hair or the significantly less conspicuous Fuji Syusuke. Well, she had thought he'd been less conspicuous, but Fuji was actually pretty easy to find because of the huge crowd around where he was warming up to play a student who looked positively terrified to be standing there.

"See you next week!"

That was the one she was looking for, although she was interested in seeing why the boy Fuji was playing was so scared. Shaking off her curiosity, she followed the voice, which had been followed by a deeper one saying, "15-love!" It took a little more searching than she would have liked, but there Eiji was, bouncing on his heels, waiting on the other boy, who wore an unseemly scowl, to serve.

It was funny; watching him play was really similar to watching someone dance, or do gymnastics, and while Quinn was sure not everyone played that way, he was fun to watch.

"Eiji-senpai." Eiji's dark-haired opponent was curt. "Please take this seriously."

There was yet another serve, and Eiji raised his eyebrows as he returned it. The redhead moved forward, and he slid a bit on the ground. Quinn was certain that he'd slipped, but then the racket was behind his back, volleying the ball back over the net once it came back his way. "What makes you think I'm not playing seriously, nyah?"

He flashed the junior a peace sign and a toothy smile, and Quinn clapped enthusiastically, lips spread in a grin. The other boy didn't seem to be very bad at tennis (although Quinn was certainly far from an expert), but Eiji was on another plane entirely, sometimes literally.

"Game, set, and match to Kikumaru Eiji."

Six to nil (love, Quinn wondered?), and that bubbly redhead had completely crushed his opposition. At least, she assumed that was crushing. When one side had a score of zero, it seemed a safe assumption. Quinn was knocked from her thoughts by that same bubbly redhead, and he didn't even have to hug her this time. The smell alerted her first.

Quinn whipped around, surprising the people next to her, placing both palms out. "Don't come any closer, Eiji-kun. You need a shower. Like really bad."

He pouted. "I just wanted to hug you and say thanks for coming to watch my match, Quinn-chan." She briefly felt bad for putting out his fire, but another whiff of sweat took the feeling away quickly. Eiji seemed to get over it similarly fast. "Hey, Fujiko-chan's still playing. I'll go tell Oishi my score and then we can go watch him?"

It should've been a statement, but it was a question, and Quinn nodded in answer. She trailed after Eiji, tugging at her skirt a little self-consciously as he said hello to person after person. It didn't surprise Quinn that Eiji knew nearly everyone, what with the way he'd swept her under his wing from the very first day. People like that tended to attract other people.

"Oishi!" They reached the scoreboard. "6-0!" Eiji addressed the boy who was tallying scores and directing people to different matches. Quinn briefly wondered how she could have missed him earlier when she was wandering through the tennis courts with no idea where she was going.

"I saw part of it. Well played match, Eiji. You're off to a good start," Oishi wrote the score on the board, and only then seemed to notice Quinn, who was staring at a bird that had landed in a tree behind them. "Who's this?"

"Eh?" Eiji blinked twice, and Oishi pointed to Quinn, who had turned back to Oishi and smiled. "Oh, Quinn-chan, this is Oishi, my doubles partner!"

"Palmer Quinn. Nice to meet you." Quinn bowed shortly.

"Oishi Syuichiro. Nice to meet you. Your accent, are you Canadian? Your Japanese sounds quite good, but you must have only moved here recently."

"American, actually. I've only been here a little under two weeks. I'm an exchange student in Eiji-kun's class," Quinn said.

Ignoring her earlier protests, Eiji pulled her under his arm. "She's going to be my tennis protégé, Oishi!"

Quinn coughed, and pushed him away. "Not likely. And you _really_ smell _horrible,_ Eiji-kun."

Oishi chuckled, and Eiji frowned. "Anyway," he said, "We're going to watch Fujiko-chan's game. See you, Oishi!" Eiji grabbed Quinn by the wrist and pulled her away, and the girl barely managed to turn and send Oishi a wave.

Briefly, Quinn was very grateful for Eiji. He pushed through the throngs of girls there to watch Fuji's match without so much as a second thought, and Quinn was just along for the ride. The ride, of course, was a long and bumpy one, and Eiji had very little situational awareness, but it was still a ride. When they were finally next to the court, Quinn saw very quickly why the other boy had seemed scared to play against Fuji. The official called out that it was five games to love, and somehow that didn't really shock Quinn, after the performance Eiji had put on previously. Fuji glanced their way, and Quinn smiled and waved as Eiji let out an enthusiastic whoop in encouragement.

"Fujiko-chan's better than all of us except the captain. He's a genius," Eiji said to her, and he must have noticed her look of disbelief. "Why is that hard to believe?"

"Well, he's just…" Quinn rubbed her arm a little sheepishly. "He's so little. Like skinny. I can't imagine him having any power. Maybe he could be agile like you, but it doesn't look like it." In her head, Quinn thought he almost looked fairy-like, but she wasn't sure if that had the same connotations in Japan as it did back home. "But, I mean, he's demolishing this guy, so obviously I don't know anything."

He really was winning by a large margin. The score was 15-0, then 30-0, then 40-0, then the game was over and Quinn really didn't want to know who thought up the ridiculous scoring system.

"Oh!" Quinn realized, "Did you say the other placements are tomorrow, Eiji-kun?"

Eiji looked away from where Fuji was walking off the court, a decisive victory behind him. "Yes. Why?"

Quinn frowned. "I won't get to see you and Fuji-san play then. I promised Airi I'd go shopping with her a few days ago, and she wants to go tomorrow. I'm sorry."

"You can't come watch tomorrow?" That was Fuji. Quinn shook her head. "That's a shame. If I'm playing against Eiji and you can't come, who will cheer for me?"

Quinn deadpanned, looking at the swarms of girls who had come to watch him. "Yes, I'm sure these throngs of fans couldn't be enough."

Maybe Quinn was seeing things, but Fuji's smile at that seemed a little more genuine. "Eiji, I'm going to go tell Oishi the score."

Eiji nodded and opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Quinn's phone. Quinn sheepishly asked for a moment, then answered the call while Eiji listened curiously. "Hello?"

" _QUINN. I need you to come home, now!"_ Valerie sounded like it was urgent, but it was really hard to tell with her, and Quinn sighed, switching to English.

" _What's going on, Val?"_

" _The cat! The one that follows me to and from school? I went on a walk and when I got home it followed me in, and we're not allowed to have pets, but I can't make it leave!"_ Quinn sighed, not noticing Fuji approaching again, asking Eiji if he wanted to go see someone called Echizen's match.

" _So don't make it leave, Val. Wait for me to come home and we can figure out what we should do."_

" _But… but I think it's hungry, and I've never had a pet before Quinn!"_

" _You can't handle it for like, an_ _ **hour**_ _on your own?"_ Quinn sighed.

" _No, I really can't! What if it dies? I can't be responsible!"_ Val was almost in hysterics, and she looked to the two boys apologetically.

" _Alright, I'll be home as soon as possible."_

" _Thank you, Quinn! I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do!"_

" _It's fine. I'll be there in half an hour."_

Quinn rubbed her temples, and Fuji said, "We were going to ask you if you wanted to come watch the freshman's match with us, but you should probably go help your roommate with that cat."

Quinn groaned. "She's such a stupid rich kid sometimes, she never knows how to do anything on her own- wait, your English is really good if you could understand her while she was half-crying. I could barely get it."

"Fujiko-chan is top of the class in English!" Eiji blurted out, and then thought to himself before speaking again. "At least, he was before you showed up. I imagine you're top of the class in English now."

"I hope so," Quinn laughed. "Thanks for the invitation. I had a lot of fun. You guys aren't too bad at this tennis stuff."

Fuji nodded, and Eiji nodded a lot more enthusiastically. "Don't worry! There'll be plenty more to watch! After all, this is only the tournament to see who gets to play in the tournaments!"

She didn't dislike tennis (yet), but the way Eiji said it made it sound like she was going to get far more than her wanted dosage. "…Can't wait, Eiji-kun. Can't wait."

"Hey! Give me your number so I can tell you how we do on our other matches tonight!" She wasn't sure she wanted to give him her number, but she was anyway, against all her better judgment. "Don't worry about giving it to Fujiko-chan. I can give it to him later."

"I wasn't super worried, since we all can see each other pretty much every day, but thanks for your concern, Eiji-kun."

* * *

The cat was a scrawny thing, undernourished, and Quinn, to say the least, didn't have it in her heart to turn it back onto the streets. She sighed. "Val, why do you have to put us in these situations?"

The darker-skinned girl looked up from where she was filing her nails. "Like it's my fault that it followed me through the door before I could stop it."

"It's a she, by the way. And I can't put her out again, so we're keeping her, and I'm not getting deported over keeping a cat, so she's going to be a secret." As if she knew somehow that Quinn was talking about keeping her, the cat rubbed against the blonde's leg. "She needs a name. Any ideas?" Quinn asked, and Valerie stayed silent. "How about…" Quinn trailed off, thinking. "Peaches?"

"That's a dumb name."

"Well, you aren't helping! What about Ripley?"

"What kind of name is Ripley?"

"You know! Ripley! From the Alien movies?" Quinn was incredulous and Valerie shook her head. "She's Ripley. Because this one's a survivor."

Despite Valerie's lack of interest in the cat, Ripley was incredibly interested in her. If Valerie was curled up on the couch, Ripley was curled up next to her, and the same went for bedtime. Quinn undressed to take a shower, getting ready to go to sleep herself, when her phone rang with a text.

'It's Fuji. Eiji's phone is dead but he wanted me to let you know that we both went 6-0 in our second matches tonight.'

Quinn briefly wondered what those hordes of screaming girls would do if they found out "their Fuji-kun" was chatting so "intimately" with another girl.

"Thanks Fuji-san. Congratulations. :)"

* * *

 **jeebus. these are actually long chapters for me lol. anyway, i got a couple more subscribers and even a favorite in the days since the last chapter was published, but still no reviews! the only reason it bothers me is that i'm worried people are getting turned off of my story and i never even know why. i guess the fandom is pretty dead, but still i really would like to hear from you guys. i hope you enjoyed this chapter. i had a lot of fun writing it!**

 **also, i do have a tumblr that i keep forgetting to advertise. the link is on my profile here, so if you don't want to review but you still want to get in touch with me, or see some little things that inspire me for this story, head there!**

 **thanks for reading!**

 **-syrasha**


	4. 3: consortium

"We've got to go here, then here, then _here_ , then we can get dinner _here_. It's just a little café, but you wouldn't _believe_ all the options they have! There's just so much to do," Airi gushed, and Quinn was suddenly very glad that she'd convinced Valerie to come with her. The Japanese girl was on a roll, and Valerie and Quinn were bound together by the need to survive. "Say," Airi looked up from the _actual agenda_ that she had put together for the evening, "You're looking for a job, right, Quinn-chan? Maybe some of these stores are hiring. Oh! The last time I was at this café they were complaining about not having anyone who spoke English well enough to communicate with foreigners. That might be a good fit!"

"Hmm…" Quinn trailed off. She had been looking for a job, but somewhat halfheartedly. It was a little intimidating, if she was honest with herself. She spoke mostly English with Valerie, and with Airi it was a little of both. She got the most practice talking to Eiji, but it was easier talking to him when Fuji was around to translate any misunderstandings. "Maybe. We'll see."

And then they were off in a whirlwind. Quinn had known Valerie was wealthy, but she didn't really understand it until after they'd walked out of three stores and her arms were full of shopping bags. At Quinn's bulging eyes, Valerie at least had the decency to blush a little. "What? My mom's an anesthesiologist and my dad's a civil engineer _and_ I'm an only child. Don't act like you wouldn't take advantage of it!"

Well, Quinn supposed, the other girl had a point, but compared to Airi's two bags and Quinn's one (very small, holding only a pair of headphones and a scarf) bag, Valerie looked like she needed to come back down to Earth a little. "That's so typical of a Hyotei student!" Airi teased, and Valerie's blush deepened.

"Don't compare me to them! They're all absolutely bonkers! The other day I walked into class, and I looked outside and someone had had their _helicopter_ bring them to school. I like shopping; he has a personal helicopter. I am _not_ like them."

"So you're like normal filthy rich and he's like evil filthy rich?" Quinn remarked dryly. Valerie nodded vigorously, not seeming to catch the sarcasm.

"The other girls are always going on about 'Atobe-sama this' and 'Atobe-sama' that, and frankly, I'm getting a little worried. Helicopter boy even calls himself 'ore-sama,' for Christ's sake."

Airi sputtered on her drink at the mention of the name. "Atobe? Like, multi-billion-dollar business moguls Atobe? They're one of, if not _the,_ richest families in Japan."

"No wonder he has his own helicopter. He probably has pools of money to bathe in between lessons," Quinn said and chuckled. "I hear that's how rich people stay young, you know. They bathe in pools of liquid gold, and afterwards, they rinse with milk, honey, and the tears of the impoverished. Is that why your skin is so clear, Val?"

Valerie pursed her lips at Quinn, who chuckled. "Where to next, Airi-chan?"

"I want to stop at this store and see if the pair of shoes I liked has gone to sale, and then we can go to the café. I'm starting to get hungry." Airi's sentence was punctuated by Quinn's stomach rumbling, and it was Valerie's turn to stifle a laugh. Quinn pouted and opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, only to get cut off by her phone ringing. She followed Valerie and Airi, who had taken the lead chatting with one another, and answered.

"Hello?"

"Quinn-chan!" That was Eiji, most definitely, and he was excited about something. "Fujiko-chan and I are both regulars!"

"That's great, Eiji-kun!"

"Yeah, but I still lost to Fujiko-chan." The pout in his voice was bordering on infantile. "6-2!"

"Eiji, isn't she with friends?" Quinn could hear Fuji ask in the background. "Leave her alone, we'll see her at school."

"Fujiko-chan said I should let you go because you're with friends, and I think he, Taka-san, and I are going to go get dinner to celebrate. See you tomorrow, Quinn-chan!" He hung up before Quinn could even say goodbye, and the blonde laughed, happy for them nonetheless. If their skill today had been anything like what she'd seen yesterday, Quinn would have been surprised if they hadn't been made regulars.

"Quinn-chan, who was that?" Airi asked, noticing she was no longer on the phone.

"Just Eiji-kun. He wanted to tell me that he and Fuji-san from my class did well in their tennis matches."

Airi raised her eyebrows teasingly, and Valerie scoffed. "How exactly is it that you already have boys calling you when I have to spend all my time trying to keep up with the people around me?"

"You should hear Eiji-kun's English, Val. It's awful. It's really bad." Quinn couldn't help but laugh at the memory. "In fact, it's even worse than your Japanese!"

Valerie's whole face went up in flames. "That's not funny! You know how hard I've been trying! I've even been getting better. Unless my teacher's been lying to me…" Valerie's voice trailed off unsurely and she looked to Airi for support.

"It's much better now than the day I met you," Airi confirmed. "You haven't been here very long, but you're really doing quite well so far." Airi browsed the high heels she had been looking at before addressing Quinn absently. "Anyway, Quinn, getting in with the tennis team already? You know they say that if you stare at Fuji too long, you never look at other guys the same way, because he's just that pretty."

"He does have neat eyes, that's for sure," Quinn admitted. "Anyway, it's not like these were friends I chose. Eiji-kun's a lot like a tornado, and I just go where he goes, and Fuji-san often winds up there too. I feel bad for all those girls that like him. They seem to _really_ like him, and he just doesn't act interested at all."

"Then you need to take advantage of your closeness-" Airi started and was quickly cut off by Valerie placing her hand over the Japanese girl's mouth.

"There will be no taking advantage of closeness until I decide whether this boy is cute."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "There isn't even any closeness. We've just been thrown together by an unstoppable and kind of obnoxious redhead who happens to have wormed his way into my heart. Also, I'm hungry. Please take me to this café-" Quinn paused, and smiled. "Actually, just a second. I have to buy this."

* * *

The three girls had been at the café for probably much longer than necessary, but Quinn had been able to tell them she was looking for work, and she was supposed to go back in a few days to meet with a manager. Quinn was glad to finally crawl into bed when she did, but had to rise early for school nonetheless. She bumped into a bleary-eyed Valerie while on the way to brush her teeth, and they just nodded to acknowledge each other, both too tired to do much else.

The day got much worse when she got to school and Eiji wasn't there. Quinn bit her lip nervously. It was bound to be a long day without her only real friend there. In fact, without him there, she even caught herself snoozing.

"Yoshida-sensei." Quinn had only been really half-asleep anyways, and it was lunchtime so it didn't really matter at the moment, but she woke up when Fuji addressed their teacher. "Would it be alright if I sat next to Palmer-san for the remainder of the day? I think she's having trouble completely understanding the lectures without Eiji here to help her."

"Ah, yes. Of course, Fuji-san."

Quinn wasn't sure whether to punch him or kiss him. Of course, he'd probably saved her from about four more hours of sitting there uncomfortably trying to stay awake, but he'd also done so at the expense of insulting her Japanese proficiency in front of the entire class.

"What are you doing?" Quinn practically hissed, and she swore she saw a sliver of blue eyes, just briefly, before he sat down next to her.

"For the sake of appearances," Fuji had switched to English, "It may be best to speak in English so that you don't appear too competent in Japanese. That would make me look like a liar."

"Maybe it's because you _are_ a liar… I was getting along just fine, even if it was a little more difficult," Quinn mumbled, fully aware that the girl in front of her was steaming over the fact that Quinn was getting attention from the boy who was essentially the class heartthrob. Nonetheless, she had already switched to English like Fuji had said.

"I thought you'd be happy to not sit by yourself, so it was the least I could do, Quinn." He switched to using her first name as well, which was altogether not intimate in English, but the girl in front of them bristled even further. Quinn smirked briefly, unable to help herself.

"Ah, Syusuke, where would I be without you?" Quinn asked. The name felt funny on her tongue and he laughed, seeming to get the joke of their informality, and Quinn was sure the girl in front of them, who was by all standards a perfectly sweet and normally demure girl, was about to turn around and snap entirely. Fuji's English really was above the level of everyone else's in the class, and because of it, Quinn was fairly certain that all people could understand was that they were using first names rather than last, and they had forsaken honorifics in a wholly English way. "Really though, where's Eiji? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Fuji said. "We went out to celebrate and he caught a cold. He should be back within a few days. I'm taking his homework to him tonight."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see that," Quinn said, then brightened. "I bought something for him last night. Do you think you could take it to him? It's a little thing, it shouldn't weigh you down or anything."

"It shouldn't be a problem."

Quinn glowed. Maybe Eiji wasn't her only friend in class after all. Of course, seeing as how she had just made an enemy of everyone who wanted to be friends (or, more likely, much more) with Fuji, she probably wouldn't be making more any time soon. "I'll pay you back sometime. Thanks a bunch for taking it to him."

* * *

Quinn chewed on her pencil, unsure whether to say something or not. It had been two days, and Eiji still hadn't shown up to class. Even though she missed the redhead, there certainly was worse company than Fuji. Now, though, it had put her in a situation where she was unsure what to do.

"Uh…" They had carried on speaking in English, but calling him Syusuke still felt a little strange. "Syusuke?"

"Yes, Quinn?" He looked up from the paper he had been writing on to listen to her.

"You're like, a genius, right?" It was hard for her not to slip back into American slang, and though she tried her hardest, she couldn't wring the word 'like' from her vocabulary.

"That's what they say, yes." He sounded amused and curious, and if she had learned anything from sitting next to him for a couple of days, it was that that was a deadly combination.

"Oh, okay. That's cool." She nodded vigorously and gave him her best thumbs up, deciding that telling him he was wrong in the same way many native English speakers were probably wouldn't endear her to him.

* * *

He knew the difference between to, too, and two, but Fuji thought it was funny that she'd chosen to stay quiet about the mistake he knew that she had seen. She'd backed down really fast, and he had really thought she might have confronted him. Quinn had played along with all his games so far, and it wasn't hard to see what Eiji saw in her. She wasn't anything special, but she was absolutely and completely genuinely friendly.

"Today-" the teacher began, and was interrupted by Quinn coughing uncontrollably, so hard that Fuji thought she might start crying. He chuckled. No, she was extraordinarily average, and in a way, that made her somewhat special all on its own. Being "exotic" was really her only selling point besides a mostly sweet disposition.

The teacher stared at her until the coughing fit had ceased, and it ended with a sneeze. Quinn sunk down as far in her seat as possible, and Fuji was sure she was wondering what it would take to simply disappear.

"As I was saying," the teacher carried on, unperturbed, as a red blush spread from Quinn's nose to her ears, "Today we'll be picking partners for a Japanese project that will take you around a month."

No sooner had the words come out of the teacher's mouth before all hell broke loose. Whispering went out, friend grasped for friend, and it went on until the teacher rapped a ruler on his desk. "You have five minutes to find a partner, then we'll go around the room so I can write down all the groups."

The look of despair on Quinn's face was picture perfect, and he could read the worry on her face. _Who would want the exchange student for a Japanese project?_ She seemed to be exuding the question from her pores, and he didn't even get to reassure her as there was suddenly a swarm around his desk, a million lucky ladies looking to be _Fuji Syusuke's_ partner, which certainly wasn't helping Quinn's mood.

The teacher rapped the ruler on the desk once more and everyone scrambled back to their seats. Quinn was in a full-blown panic, now. She hadn't even talked to anyone, much less found a partner.

"Honda-san, who is your partner?" The teacher asked the girl in the first seat, a pretty-faced and slim girl who was a regular fixture anyplace where Fuji was.

"Fuji-kun is my partner, sensei!" The teacher started writing it down, but Fuji interrupted him.

"Excuse me, sensei, but I believe Honda-san is mistaken. Palmer-chan is my partner for this project."

The teacher turned around and looked at him, not seeming to notice Quinn's jaw almost on the ground, staring at Fuji. "Are you sure, Fuji-san? I wasn't sure I was even going to have Palmer-san participate in this project, simply due to her handicap." Quinn ground her teeth at the word _handicap_.

"Yes, sensei. We've talked it over, haven't we, Palmer-chan?" Fuji looked to her, and just like he'd expected, she played along perfectly, even changing his honorific similarly to the way he'd changed hers.

Quinn quickly retrieved her jaw from where it had been resting on the floor, smiling at the teacher and thanking every god in heaven for Fuji Syusuke. "Yes, sensei. Fuji-kun and I both thought that I could bring a unique perspective to this project as a non-native Japanese speaker."

"Well, if that's the case, then clearly there has been a misunderstanding," the teacher said, "Honda-san, you'll be pairing with Kikumaru-san then, as he wasn't here to choose a partner. Fuji-san and Palmer-san will be partners."

"Yes, sensei…" Honda was pouting, and, in an all too familiar way, it made Fuji laugh a little.

"Syusuke, I have a question." Quinn had switched back to English, and she appeared to be all business now that she had a clear goal in mind. "You have tennis practice after school every day, right?" He nodded. "When and where do you want to meet to work on it?"

"Well, tennis doesn't go too late and after that we can always meet at my house. My sister would love to have another woman in the house. I still have to take Eiji's homework to him."

Quinn nodded. "You're welcome to my apartment as well, but it's only me and Val and I wasn't sure if it would be improper."

They decided it would be best if she hung around the school and did schoolwork until he was done with practice, and then they would work on the project afterwards. "Do be sure to warn Valerie you won't be home on time."

Quinn blushed. "She means well. Anyway, I'll just find a bench outside and find somewhere to work in the sun until you're done. You have my phone number if you can't find me."

* * *

"Hey, Echizen!" Momoshiro Takeshi called out to their freshman, who was cooling down from practice at the water fountain. "That girl has been there the whole practice and has barely even looked up from the book she's reading, but does she look like she's from here?"

"She's in the uniform, so obviously she's from here," Ryoma remarked dryly.

"No one around here has hair like that, Echizen!"

"Neither does she. It's obviously dyed, you idiot."

"Who are you calling an idiot, you-" Momoshiro interrupted himself as he saw Fuji approach the girl, who quickly hopped up with a smile on her face. "Fuji-senpai? Echizen, doesn't it look like they're walking together?"

"Who cares?" Echizen was already out of arms reach of Momoshiro, who had tried to grab him and pull him along to get a better look.

They were walking together for sure, Quinn chattering in English happily, and Fuji listening contentedly.

* * *

"Eiji-kun was really not happy that he didn't get to be your partner for this project," Quinn said sheepishly. Fuji chuckled.

"I could have let him carry on thinking that this was a date, if that would have made you feel better," Fuji said, and Quinn's hand flew to her mouth in wonder.

"A _date?_ With _you_ , Fuji-kun? I would have been the envy of all the girls in class!" Quinn laughed and he did the same as he pushed open the door to the house that they'd come to.

"Syusuke?" A woman's voice rang out, and Quinn suddenly started having second thoughts.

Okay, so she had gotten a little nervous all of a sudden, and it wasn't just because Fuji had said she could eat there and Quinn hadn't quite mastered chopsticks yet.

"I'm home, nee-san. I brought Palmer-chan with me."

Quinn had always thought of Fuji as pretty, but his older sister was on another plane entirely, that much was clear the moment she walked in the room. Quinn blushed just looking at her, and Yumiko looked briefly to Fuji for an explanation.

"A-ah, sorry. I'm Palmer Quinn. It's a pleasure to meet you, Fuji-san." Quinn bowed, and Yumiko smiled.

"You can call me Yumiko-chan, Quinn-chan. It'll get confusing around here if you're calling so many people Fuji-san. Do you need something to drink? You look a bit flustered."

"Oh no, I'm fine! It's just that you're _so_ beautiful, and I have a little trouble with my Japanese sometimes anyway!" The words came flying out of her mouth before she could stop them, and Quinn had started hoping that the floor would just swallow her whole. Yumiko let out a musical laugh, though, and suddenly Quinn didn't feel so bad.

"Ah, Syusuke, where have you been keeping this one? You should have brought her home sometime when I was in high school. It's no wonder you keep her around if she always has such sweet things to say." Yumiko smiled warmly. "Make yourself at home, Quinn-chan. You're planning on staying for dinner?"

"I-if that's okay, Yumiko-chan."

"Of course," Yumiko said kindly. She looked to her younger brother and shook her head. "Don't even ask. He's not home. He said he'd maybe come visit sometime next week."

Fuji sighed as though who 'he' was was obvious, and Quinn thought that that was perhaps the first time she had heard him even somewhat displeased. "We can study in my room, Palmer-chan."

Yumiko thought that that was a bit forward, but the foreign student paid it no mind, bouncing along after her brother. It had been only her and her brothers for a little while now, since their mother had gone along with their father a year or so ago on a more long-term business venture. Mostly it was alright, but since Yuuta had left to live at St. Rudolph, things had been a bit lonelier.

"So! I started reading the book, and I actually really like it!" Fuji had left his door open, but Yumiko didn't think it would have mattered. The girl was a little loud, but if her brother didn't mind, Yumiko surely didn't.

* * *

Quinn really did like the book, and even though she was having trouble understanding parts, Fuji was actually a quite patient teacher. She wasn't sure what had possessed him to be so kind, or if it was really kind at all, just him acting in self-preservation since Eiji wasn't there, but regardless, the situation was mutually beneficial.

When they sat for dinner though, all of the apprehension about chopsticks returned, and though Quinn tried her hardest to act like she wasn't completely comfortable (although she was sure Fuji knew it was an act, having seen her battle with chopsticks most days at lunch), but stressed herself to the point that when she saw a fork in her immediate reach along with the traditional chopsticks, it was hard not to shed a tear of relief. Yumiko winked at her after the obvious faces of nerves went back to normal, and Quinn smiled joyously.

"So Quinn," Yumiko asked, "Do you have any siblings?"

"One. A sister, Ellie. It's just her and my mom and me anymore," Quinn said, still determined to use the chopsticks. "I still hear from my dad sometimes, but I don't need him. My parents divorced when I was seven."

"Do you like it here so far?"

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, I do. My friends keep me on my toes." Quinn flicked a glance at Fuji, whose smile turned a little conspiratorial. "I have a few Japanese friends and I live with another American, so I always have a little slice of home around, even if she is from a totally different world there and here. She goes to Hyotei Academy, but I think it's a little otherworldly, even for her." Quinn chuckled.

"Well, our door is always open. She sounds nice enough, but I've heard those Hyotei students are something else entirely."

Quinn had been nervous about coming, but if she hadn't, she was sure she would have regretted it, and when dinner was over, Quinn said she had to get back home.

"For all her flaws, Valerie will worry if I don't get home soon. She does care, on top of all the weird things she does."

Yumiko nodded kindly. "Syusuke, it's dark out. You should really walk her home."

"Of course, Yumiko-nee-san."

Quinn and Fuji stood to go, and as they left the house, Quinn said, "Thank you for having me Yumiko-chan."

"You're welcome any time. I get lonely here with just boys around." Yumiko winked, and Quinn laughed.

It was dark out, but Quinn was grateful that it was better lit than the streets of the town she had lived in. "Fuji-kun?" The question was quiet, as she stared out into the dark sky. "Thanks for sitting next to me while Eiji-kun was gone. And for being my partner."

"Saa... Don't worry, Palmer-chan. There will be plenty of time to return the favor."

Quinn smiled brightly, and she thought that Fuji's smile looked genuine too.

* * *

" _Who_ was _that_?" When Quinn walked into the apartment, Val bombarded her with questions, and the abrupt swap from Japanese to English sent the blonde's head spinning. "Is that your _study partner_? Where did you find such a delicate angel?"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were interested," Quinn teased, plopping down in the living room.

"I'm just saying, for every guy at Hyotei who thinks he's the most attractive guy in the world, that guy gives them a run for their money. What's his name?"

"Syusuke Fuji." It felt strange saying his name the Western way.

"Fuji? The same guy Airi said was super attractive this morning? She really wasn't kidding!" Val sighed. "Well at least you've bagged somebody cute already."

Quinn snorted. "As if. You wouldn't believe the way that girls flock to him. I think I'm just a shield so no one else acts like they've "bagged" him. You wouldn't believe how the vultures are on him."

"Well, you were out late with your boyfriend-" Valerie paused as Quinn rolled her eyes, "So I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

"If I got a boyfriend over here, I think my mother would probably kill me. Can you imagine? Being in a relationship with a time limit like that? I mean, I'm only here like eight more months, Val."

"I said I'm going to bed, Quinn!"

"You brought this up! Seriously, think about it. Can you imagine falling in love with someone and knowing all the time that it's going to turn into a long-distance relationship whether you want it to or not? Honestly though, if I fall in love with anyone from that family, it's going to be his sister. You should have seen her."

* * *

 **I'm doing it! I'm updating consistently! I want to say a huge and hearty thank you to _MythologyBookworm_ and _Dustfinger's cheering section_ for being my very first reviewers! I also got a few more followers and even a favorite or two, so I think you guys are liking it! I hope this chapter was a hit as well. Thanks for reading! The next one may be out a little slower because I work all weekend, but I'll try my hardest to get it out in a reasonable amount of time!**

 **-syrasha**


	5. 4: macarize

Quinn had felt a little homesick before she even _left_ home, and even though she loved Japan after being there for a few weeks, it was hard for her to imagine how she was going to go a whole year without her mother and Ellie.

"Hey! I don't want to hear that quitter talk!" Ellie pointed at her through the camera, and Quinn smiled through teary eyes.

"I didn't say I wanted to leave, I just said I missed you guys." Quinn absently petted Ripley, who had curled up in her lap as Valerie got ready for school. Quinn had woken up an hour early just to speak to her family. The thirteen hour time difference made things difficult for them to get in touch without planning in advance.

"Hey, you can't think about it. You think I don't miss you? I do. I really do. I just don't think about it. I do a lot of underage drinking and act like you never existed," Ellie joked. Quinn chuckled despite herself. "You having an okay time making friends?"

Quinn nodded. "Yeah. My roommate is great. At school there's another girl who was an exchange student a few years ago, and there's a couple boys in my class who keep me pretty busy."

"What kind of busy?" Their mom had been silent for most of the conversation after the initial hello, but the sound of the opposite sex brought her back into it.

"Tons of sex, Mom. Only sex. Loads of it." Quinn rolled her eyes. "The one is my partner for a Japanese project and the other sits next to me. I went and watched them play tennis the other day and I'm pretty sure the one that sits next to me is convinced that I'll be the one to carry on his legacy."

Ellie snorted. "Wow, they obviously don't know you that well yet. Remember when we did gymnastics?"

Quinn turned red at the memory. "Shut up." Quinn didn't have much talent for anything, but Ellie was the opposite, a natural at almost everything she tried.

Ellie tried to stifle a laugh, mostly unsuccessfully. "Try to keep busy, Quinn." Her mom's voice was soft. "We'll be waiting for you, but you've got to make it through the year. After all, we like not having you here, right, Ellie?" Ellie nodded vigorously, and Quinn rolled her eyes, because that was much easier than crying and having to redo her makeup before school.

She skipped the bus that morning, opting instead to walk. The time it took to get there on foot was only about ten minutes more with all the bus stops taken into account, and Quinn felt that the time to clear her head would be beneficial. She breathed in the cool morning air and bit her lip, putting one foot in front of the other all the time.

It seemed silly to be homesick after such a short amount of time, and a little selfish to boot. Quinn knew how many people wanted the opportunity she had gotten, but that didn't change the fact that she missed her mom's pot roast and her sister's stupid jokes. Their little gray monster of a cat was even tugging on her heartstrings, and even though Ripley was a kind of replacement, he preferred Valerie anyway. She'd tried to talk to Valerie about it, but the other girl had just teared up and gone to her room once the subject had been breached. It wasn't like Quinn could blame the other girl, but it definitely didn't make things any easier. Quinn wanted to scream, but shook her head and willed away the tears that pricked at her eyes instead. Briefly, she wondered what Yumiko would do, and immediately afterwards prayed that Eiji would be feeling better enough to come to school that day. Fuji had been a model friend, but Eiji left no room whatsoever for negativity whereas the brown-haired boy was a little more reserved.

Of course, when she walked into class, said brown-haired boy seemed to instantly clue in to the negative aura she'd been trying so hard to hide. Quinn gave him a wide, toothy grin, which seemed to do nothing but further his suspicions. "Good morning, Fuji-kun."

"Good morning, Palmer-chan," he said, his own smile in place as it always was, and switched to English. "Are you okay, Quinn?"

Quinn nodded, and was saved from having to defend her position by a redhead who could only be stopped by forces larger than human nature.

"Quinn-chan!" Eiji may have been missing from school for several days, but all of Japan knew it once he got back. "I forgot to thank you for the keychain you had Fujiko-chan bring me!" He bounced right back to her side and swooped the blonde up in a hug. Quinn smiled. Even if he hadn't known it, a hug had been exactly what she'd needed after such a hard morning full of homesickness.

"No problem, Eiji-kun. I missed you while you were gone. Are you feeling better?" Quinn asked the boy once she'd finally made it out of the hug. Eiji nodded.

"I don't even remember you being there the one day when Fujiko-chan brought me my homework," Eiji said thoughtfully. "I bet your Japanese project will be great, though! I don't think Honda-san really wants to work with me, but I'm not sure why she seems so mad."

Quinn's eyes flitted over to Fuji, who smiled slightly back at her in a way that made her feel suspect more than anything, and she turned a little pink with embarrassment. "Y-yeah, I'm not sure why she'd be upset…"

Eiji cocked his head to the side. "Oh well. Are you working on your project tonight as well?" When Quinn nodded, the redhead's face lit up. "We can all walk home together after tennis practice, nyah!"

With Eiji glowing like her walking home with him and Fuji was the best thing in the world, it was hard to keep feeling homesick, and Quinn suddenly thought that maybe she wouldn't even have to fake having a decent day. How could you possibly sad around someone who really was excited just to see you?

* * *

Ryuzaki Sakuno didn't even like having a crush on Echizen Ryoma. All it had brought so far was misunderstandings, but that didn't change the fact that she kept on trying to get him to notice her, and honestly, it was confusing more than anything. Sure, he was cute, talented, and kind when he had the awareness to notice her, but that didn't all have to add up to anything, did it?

Who was she kidding? This was puppy love at its finest.

Of course, she had also been kidding herself when she had told Tomoka that she could find her way to the girls' tennis courts on her own. Tomoka had even asked her a second time to make sure, because Sakuno's ability to get lost was legendary. She had found herself on the wrong side of the boys' tennis courts, too embarrassed to show her face because how would it look to Ryoma if she'd managed to get lost _again_? Her sense of direction had already forced him out of a tournament. Sakuno definitely didn't want to look like an idiot in front of him any more than necessary.

There was a shout (something in English?) that came towards her direction, and then she took a tennis ball to the head, and suddenly looking like an idiot wasn't even on her mind anymore.

* * *

Quinn berated herself angrily. "Look out!" would be universal, one would think, but the words had flown out of her mouth in English before she could even form them in Japanese, and the girl she'd been trying to warn had looked at Quinn curiously rather than reacting to the ball that had come straight from the boys' tennis practice. The blonde dropped her book immediately and ran to where the girl with braids had fallen to the ground. Quinn picked her head up gently, looking around desperately for help, and never had she been so happy that Eiji's vision was far above average. The redhead must have barely caught a glance of her in his peripherals, and he had whipped around. "Eiji-kun, a first aid kit! Now!" Quinn barked the words at him, a little shorter than necessary perhaps, but he didn't seem hurt by it.

"Ryuzaki-sensei! The first aid kit! Someone's hurt bad!"

He didn't know how badly the girl was hurt, but Quinn was grateful for his concern. His urgency had nearly the whole tennis team aware of the situation, and a woman in a pink tracksuit was jogging towards the bench where Quinn assumed the first aid kit was. Not wanting to wait for the woman to reach them, and a little concerned about the amount of blood, Quinn grabbed the bow off of her uniform and held it to the girl's head. The tennis ball certainly hadn't caused the cut, but it was hard to say what could be hiding in the grass. With the girl's head in her lap and putting pressure on the wound, Quinn bit her lip worriedly.

"What happened?" The woman in pink was next to her then, pulling the girl's head out of Quinn's lap, and shaking her head with worry. "Oh, Sakuno…" She trailed off. "Well? What happened?"

It was like all of Quinn's Japanese had left her, and the blonde searched for a friendly face, only to find Fuji not too far away. "Someone hit a ball that wound up all the way out here, it hit her in the head, she fell down, and I think she cut her head on something."

The woman, who Quinn figured was their coach, gave Quinn a look of confusion, and finally turned to where Fuji stood as he translated, and Quinn heard him tack on, "This is Palmer Quinn. She's an exchange student."

The girl started to stir, and she had Quinn's full attention. "O-obaa-chan?"

"Why weren't you paying more attention, Sakuno?" The girl's face went bright red, and it seemed to coincide with her looking at the freshman that Eiji was always talking about, the one with blackish-green hair and what seemed to be an attitude problem.

"Yeah, you really should be watching where you're going." That was a shorter boy dressed in green and orange, and apparently, a freshman with a big mouth and a lack of empathy was all it took for Quinn to find all of her Japanese again.

"Yeah, and you should really shut your mouth," Quinn said, sickly sweet, as she rose from where she had sat before. "Before I shut it for you. In fact, if I didn't know better, I could say with almost certainty that you were the one who couldn't keep the ball in the court, so whose fault is it really?"

"Ten laps, Horio." That was a stern boy who looked like he could have been the coach if he wasn't dressed in the same outfit that all the other regulars were. Quinn stuck her tongue out childishly at the younger boy's back.

"Saa… You do know you're an upperclassman, right, Palmer-chan?" Fuji asked, following the immature display, and Quinn rolled her eyes.

"She's hurt, and you want to talk about seniority." Quinn tossed up her hands in frustration. "Will she be okay, sensei?"

"She should be. You stopped most of the bleeding, but she might have a minor concussion from hitting her head. Thank you…?" Ryuzaki trailed off, waiting for Quinn's name. Fuji had told her before, Quinn thought, but maybe she hadn't noticed in her worry.

"Palmer Quinn, sensei."

"Thank you for helping my granddaughter, Palmer-san. Would it be possible for me to ask one more favor of you?" Ryuzaki asked, and Quinn nodded. "Would you help Sakuno get to the nurse here? She should be able to tell us whether we need to go see a doctor."

Quinn smiled and nodded again. "Sure. Do you think you can walk, Sakuno-chan?"

The girl nodded, and Quinn offered a hand to help the girl up. "Feel free to lean on me. I'll be fine." She winked at Sakuno, and looked to Fuji and Eiji. "Get back to practice. You'll know where to find me when it's done."

"Feel better, Sakuno-chan!" That was Eiji, and Fuji nodded his agreement, and Quinn didn't think it was possible for Sakuno to blush any harder, but when Quinn saw the freshman regular and the girl with braids make eye contact, him even looking a little concerned, Sakuno's face went up in flames. Quinn giggled as they walked away, and to onlookers, her face may have even been a little conspiratorial.

Once they were far out of earshot (Quinn figured the poor girl had suffered enough embarrassment for the day), Quinn sighed romantically, "That freshman regular is _so_ cute! Is he your boyfriend?"

Sakuno sputtered, and Quinn suddenly wondered if that was a wise question as the brunette almost lost her balance and hit the floor. "Because if he's not, he should be!"

"S-senpai, don't be silly…"

"I'm not being silly! He should be!" Quinn protested, and the blonde could tell Sakuno was very glad when Eiji and Fuji came to collect the American. "Hey!" Eiji was practically dragging her away, but she would have the last word or die trying. "Think about what I said! You'd be cute!"

* * *

How Eiji had convinced them to stop for ice cream was beyond Quinn, but she didn't really mind. That morning she had hoped to talk to Yumiko as soon as possible about how hard homesickness was hitting, but the day hadn't turned out so bad after all, and as she licked the melted parts off of her fingers, she was struck by how absolutely ungraceful she probably looked.

"Anyway, I'm just saying that that girl is absolutely in love with – what was his name again?"

"Echizen Ryoma."

"Yeah, him. She's totally in love with him and he doesn't even know it. It's so tragic…" Quinn chewed on her fingernail absently, neglecting the chocolate ice cream that continued to melt all over her right hand. They had left Eiji behind a few blocks prior and were coming up to the Fuji residence. "I think we should make it happen." Fuji's silence was underwhelming. "Fuji-kun. We've got to do it. It's for the greater good."

"I didn't say no, Palmer-chan. I've always wanted to try my hand at matchmaking."

Needless to say, they didn't get nearly as much homework done that night as Quinn had thought they would, and when Yumiko had come to tell them that dinner was ready, she had found her brother staring, with eyes wide open, at a drawing (presumably Quinn's) of two stick figures holding hands, a large and poorly-drawn heart in the air above them. Quinn was standing, hands on her hips, grinning triumphantly and saying, "It can't fail!"

"What's going on in here?" Yumiko asked with a chuckle, and Quinn looked at the older girl with fire in her eyes.

"We're going to make our underclassmen fall in love."

The plan was simple enough; Quinn would bring Sakuno to the festival that was happening in a few weeks, while Fuji would bring Ryoma, and probably Eiji as well, just for the sake of appearances. Once there, they'd abandon the youngsters, who would have no choice but to enjoy the festival together.

Fuji didn't want to admit it, but Quinn looked a little like Inui when, after all was said and done, all she did was mutter the word, "Foolproof."

Yumiko found it a little hard to admit that she had hoped that the stick figures with the heart between them had been her brother and this American who had so unapologetically inserted herself into their lives.

* * *

"Hey, Val?"

"Quinn?"

"What do you wear to a festival?"

"Think it's like traditional wear. Like traditional Japanese clothes. Kimonos and stuff."

"…shit."

* * *

 **oops it's a little shorter and i'm sorry you had to wait a little longer! i ended up working more than i thought this weekend lol, and retail takes it out of me. sakuno makes a very dramatic entrance! thanks to my reviewers, FanBird and suna! i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! please review because they give me something to look forward to after a long hard day at work!**

 **-syrasha**

 **also, not that you guys care, but this one's working title was 'oh, balls'**


	6. 5: fluster

**full disclosure: i did not proofread this at all. i apologize.**

* * *

Valerie fluffed her hair once more, wanting to prove without doubt that she had been more than capable thus far of taking care of herself. When the call started, however, she wasn't ready for the serious tone it quickly took.

It had begun normally, the kind of courtesy questions that people often asked others they cared about, "How are you?" and "Are you getting along alright?" Valerie had cheerily answered them all and returned them to boot, happy to see her parents and happy that she and Quinn really were doing alright for themselves. In fact, she was so happy that Valerie _almost_ didn't notice that her father was looking rather thin in the face, and a little pale, too.

"Dad?" Valerie stopped suddenly, "Are you okay?"

His voice sounded a little thicker. "We really are happy to talk to you, Valerie, but we did not call without reason." Valerie felt herself tear up at his tone, and her mother left the frame, apparently unable to control her emotions.

* * *

Whatever she'd thought the first day of work would be like, this wasn't it. She was nearing the end of a five hour shift, and while five hours hadn't seemed that long when she'd walked in the door, now Quinn was wondering how she had survived. She tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear, took a deep breath, and stepped back out on the floor from the bathroom, the five minutes of respite not close to enough.

When she had come in for the interview, Quinn had thought it had been fabulous. There had been a homey atmosphere, and on that Monday evening business had been steady, but not overwhelming. The current situation on a weekend afternoon was completely different. Quinn was fighting back tears of frustration already, and there were months left of waiting on people she could hardly understand and who could hardly understand her, never sure when making jokes with customers was appropriate and when it wasn't. Still, it was money, and it was better than having no job at all.

Quinn wiped the sweat from her forehead, and let both her elbows rest on the table. The café wasn't closing up yet for the evening, but her shift was over. Her boss, a kindly (and very pregnant) woman who appeared to speak no English whatsoever, brought the American a cup of tea during a lull in business.

"Thank you, Ayakawa-san," Quinn said, and took a sip. The older woman nodded and smiled softly, waddling back to the kitchen, taking care to be kind to her large, round belly. Quinn smiled fondly after her. With all the hectic stress of the shift behind her, the American didn't feel too bad.

Quinn pulled out her phone, absently playing on it, before it vibrated in her hand. A very large message from Eiji came through, simply titled, " _Highlights from tennis practice, Quinn-chan!_ " with several pictures attached.

Echizen taking a drink of some abominable-looking concoction.

Fuji drinking something similar, smiling as always.

A boy Quinn vaguely remembered being called Oishi laying on the ground in pain.

Eiji taking a selfie, flashing a victory sign, with the bodies of what appeared to be victims of the juice scattered all around him.

Quinn wasn't sure to laugh or shudder, and she was fairly sure she did both. Briefly, she wondered if it would be cruel, funny, or uncomfortably similar to a stalker to make the picture of Eiji with his teammates all about him her phone wallpaper. She decided against it, waved goodbye to her boss and the rest of the crew and started the walk home.

It wasn't far, and she was thankful for it. Walking was quite a good way to have homesickness take over, because she was alone, and Quinn missed home the most when she was alone. Even having Valerie around to chatter to was a comfort, Airi was always around if she needed someone else to talk to, and Eiji and Fuji were good for a word or two as well. Not that Eiji could ever stop at a word or two, of course, but that was beside the point.

Quinn sighed and slapped a smile on, walking through the door to their apartment only to find Valerie crumpled up like a discarded piece of paper, sobbing quietly with her knees pulled up to her chest. Ripley was on all fours, nuzzling against Valerie's side, trying to get her attention. The smile that Quinn had faked fell apart immediately, and she rushed to Valerie's side, gripping both of her shoulders. Ripley mewed in protest. "Val? Val, what's wrong?"

"My dad, Quinn. My dad's dying." Valerie could barely choke the words out before she dissolved into tears again, and Quinn wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her as tight as she could. "I don't know what to do, Quinn. He forbade me to come home. He said," Valerie fought back a sob, "that he knew how hard I'd worked to come here and that it wouldn't help anything if I was there."

Speechless for once in her life, Quinn stayed silent, stroking Valerie's hair as she wept. "Can we go do something? Please?" Valerie sounded desperate, and Quinn had never heard the wealthy girl use that tone before.

Quinn nodded enthusiastically, gluing back the smile that had fallen off. "Okay, it's your treat, but if you insist."

Valerie chuckled a little at that, but she looked tired, and Quinn wondered how long she had been crying. "Let me grab a jacket and put some makeup back on. And let's not talk about it. It'll only make it worse."

"There's a great place that that friend of mine always goes for burgers," Quinn yelled after her, pulling out her phone and shooting off a text as Valerie walked away. "Let's go there then we can go for a walk or something? Maybe we can see a movie."

 _To: Kikumaru Eiji, Fuji Syusuke_

 _Meet me at the burger place with the name I can never pronounce in ten minutes. Act surprised to see me. Also act happy to see me. As if you're ever not happy to see me. Please come. I'll owe you one. Except I already owe you like seven favors, Fuji-kun, so I guess I'll owe you eight._

 _Quinn_

They were in line for burgers by the time Eiji showed up, and he bounded over to them quickly, wrapping his arms around Quinn's neck like his life depended on it. Valerie chuckled demurely, and Quinn sighed in relief. She didn't seem to suspect that Quinn had invited others to try to keep her mind off Valerie's immediate troubles.

"What are you doing here, Quinn-chan?" Eiji was as energetic as ever, and immediately after that question launched into the next. "And who's this? I'm Kikumaru Eiji, but you can just call me Eiji. Everyone does."

Valerie laughed a little shyly. "Majumdar Valerie. Y-you can call me Valerie-chan if you want." The girl wasn't really particularly quiet, but speaking Japanese made her slightly so. If Eiji noticed, he didn't make any deal out of it whatsoever.

"Oh, you must be Quinn-chan's roommate. We've heard lots about you? You go to Hyotei, right?"

Valerie nodded in answer. "I heard you're pretty good at tennis. People at Hyotei are talking about tennis all the time. I never realized it was so popular."

Eiji was chattering now, and Quinn knew better than anyone that once he got started it was too difficult to even try stopping him. Somewhere after Eiji announced that he had the "number one reflexes in Seigaku!" Quinn made eye contact with Fuji, who had appeared just outside the window. She mouthed "thank you" to the brown-haired boy, who simply nodded and smiled a little more in response. Quinn owed them quite an explanation at some point soon, but for now, she was thankful they had come to help distract Valerie. When Fuji came in to introduce himself, Quinn even saw a little bit of a blush rise to Valerie's cheeks, and the blonde smiled. Even if it was because of a superficial crush on the prettiest boy in her class, Quinn was just glad to see the girl smile.

* * *

Quinn smiled thankfully at Fuji when she arrived at school the following Monday. She had left on an earlier bus to try to get there before Eiji did, hoping to explain to each of the boys individually why she had needed them so suddenly. Surprisingly, Fuji was already there.

"What are you doing here so early, Fuji-kun?" Quinn came to a standstill in front of the brown-haired boy's desk.

"I could ask you the same question, Palmer-chan."

"Uh," Quinn started, and a blush tinged her cheeks. "I was hoping to talk to you before things got busy in here today." The American swapped to English, noticing a few others already in the classroom. "I wanted to thank you for showing up the other day. Valerie got some really bad news, and I was just trying to keep her mind off of it."

"Is she okay now?" Fuji switched to English as easily as she did.

"Ahh…" Quinn sighed softly, and absently scratched at the back of her arm. "Not really. She found out that her dad is really sick, and her parents don't want her to come home because they know how much Valerie wanted this opportunity." The blonde ran a hand through her hair. "Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, Syusuke. You and Eiji helped a lot."

His smile didn't move from its place, but she was treated to bright blue eyes. "It's no problem, Quinn. I do have a question for you, though. I guess it's maybe better called a favor, even though it's not for me." Quinn cocked her head to the side, and he continued. "There's a tournament in a few weeks. My brother and I both play in it, and my sister would like to come, but told me she would be more comfortable if she had someone to go with. Yumiko doesn't know I'm asking."

Quinn smiled gently. "I'll be there." Briefly, she was struck by how lovely Fuji's eyes were, and Quinn continued, "You know, I kind of see what all those girls see in you. You're an alright kind of guy, Syusuke."

Fuji looked a little startled at that, but he recovered quickly from the blunt comment. He looked almost like he was about to say something, but even if he had, Quinn wouldn't have heard it, because Eiji came barreling through the door, a force of nature that nearly knocked Quinn to the ground. "Quinn-chan!" He shouted before looking around to make sure the teacher wasn't in the room. "Quinn-chan," Eiji started again, a little quieter, "We have district preliminaries this weekend, and you said you owed me one, so you have to come!"

Quinn sighed, but it was hard to be annoyed with him. "Can Valerie come?"

"Anybody can come! Besides, she was nice, and she knew more about tennis than you!"

Quinn fought back the very, very strong urge to roll her eyes. "She is lovely, isn't she? I'll be there, and I'll bring Valerie with me if she doesn't have anything else going on."

"Kikumaru-san. Palmer-san." She hadn't noticed it, but everyone else in the class appeared to have filed into the room, the teacher, who was speaking now, included. "If you could please take your seats, I'd like to begin today's lessons."

Quinn felt like her face was on fire, but Eiji just responded with a thumbs-up and a, "Yes, sensei!" before dragging the blonde along with him back to their seats.

* * *

Quinn had followed the map all the way there, and it had taken some nagging and a promise to buy her dinner, but the blonde had even managed to drag Valerie out of the apartment as well.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun," Quinn had whined, and Valerie had thrown a pillow out from the make-shift blanket fort she had wormed herself into. Quinn pretended she didn't notice the smudged mascara all over the pillowcase. "Please! Eiji sounded really excited to see you again, and I'll even buy you dinner if you want? Okay, dinner, plus a new dress the next time we go out shopping?"

That had piqued Valerie's interest, and Quinn saw a bit of Valerie's dark hair peek out over the blankets. Quinn took that as a sign of encouragement to flip the lights on, and the action was met with a shriek by the other girl. "Fine, fine! Just let me shower, damn you!"

An hour later and there they were, trying to navigate their way around tennis courts and mobs of people that the both of them had trouble understanding even if they worked together. Quinn's eyes latched onto a pretty girl with braids, and before Valerie even had a say in the matter they were marching towards her.

"Sakuno-chan!" The freshman jumped at that before smiling as she recognized who it was.

"A-ah, senpai. I didn't know you'd be here."

"Sakuno-chan, this is my roommate." Quinn introduced Valerie briefly and the two exchanged names. "Now," Quinn continued, "Those jackets look familiar to me, so I bet they're playing over there!"

Quinn's thought was right, and as they walked forward, her favorite redhead noticed them and bounded over. "Quinn-chan! You're just in time. Fujiko-chan and Taka-san just started playing. It was too bad you could only make it to the finals. What would have happened if we had lost before we got here?"

"Kikumaru-senpai," said a dark-haired freshman that Quinn hadn't noticed before that, one of three, "Why did Ryuzaki-sensei put Fuji-senpai in second doubles?"

"Eh…" Eiji pressed a finger to his lip, and turned. "Oishi! Why do we have Fujiko-chan in doubles?"

"It's about flow, Eiji," Oishi said, and Quinn waved at him. The vice-captain smiled back, and continued, "They expected Fuji to play singles, and our second doubles is always a wildcard. This way, Echizen and Kaidoh both get to play singles, while they're intimidated before they even get around to playing singles themselves."

To Quinn it looked even, and she said as much to Valerie, but the freshman boy from the other day (the one that Quinn had so unceremoniously scolded for hurting Sakuno) thought otherwise. "Fudomine are unseeded. Kawamura-senpai and Fuji-senpai shouldn't be pushed so hard by players from an unseeded school."

Quinn looked at the boy, who seemed to be looking sheepishly from her to Sakuno, wondering if he had put himself right in the middle of a place he didn't want to be. The American's eyes softened. "Hey, kid," she said, and the boy looked at her. "Sorry for snapping at you a while ago. I was just worried about Sakuno-chan."

The grin that split the boy's face nearly melted Quinn's heart, and Quinn smiled back in response. She saw movement from the corner of her eye, and Quinn's attention went back to the game, where Fuji had just returned a ball so that it didn't even bounce when it hit the ground. Quinn's eyes widened.

"What was that?" she asked, more to herself than anyone. She hadn't even noticed Eiji and Oishi's departure, but Valerie had.

"Um, hi?" Valerie said, a little questioningly, to the boy in glasses who had taken Eiji and Oishi's place.

"That is one of Fuji's triple counters." The boy didn't look up from the notebook where he was scribbling notes. "We call it the swallow return."

"Swallow return…" Quinn repeated softly, and turned to the much taller boy. "Who are you?"

"Ah. Apologies. Inui Sadaharu." Quinn opened her mouth to introduce herself, but was interrupted rather quickly. "A pleasure to meet you, Palmer-san."

"Why do you know her when she doesn't know you?" Valerie asked the obvious question, and Quinn nodded curiously, thinking that there was not much more to be said.

The one freshman boy (Horio? Quinn vaguely remembered him being called something like that) said, "Inui-senpai knows everything about everyone."

"Almost true," Inui didn't appear to be humble, "I have never been able to read Fuji's data."

Quinn quirked an eyebrow. "All anyone ever talks about is how great he is. Is he bad at anything?"

"Not bad to look at," Val remarked offhandedly. Quinn rolled her eyes, and Val shrugged. "What? It's the truth."

The action ramped up, and Quinn was suddenly very thankful for the three freshman boys, particularly Horio. It had already been established that she didn't know much of anything about the sport, and Horio was a willing teacher, if not the most knowledgeable and if only to hear his own voice. Top-spins, slices, lobs, and even that ridiculous scoring system; Quinn got the crash course in tennis vocabulary, eyes following the ball that had been bouncing back and forth between teams.

"Kawamura-san is really strong," she mumbled to Valerie, "and it's kind of cute how he uses English. Like actually really cute." Valerie chuckled and nodded in response, and then it was like the crowd went still as the player-coach from Fudomine gave a signal to one of his players on the court.

The tall boy from Fudomine gave his captain a grin, and took on a stance that seemed only to intensify Fuji's gaze. If Quinn didn't know better, she would say that she heard Inui gasp slightly.

The power that came off the ball after the boy from Fudomine hit it was indescribable, and as Fuji braced himself to return it, Quinn found herself tensing in turn. "Ah…" It was like it was happening in slow motion. "Ah, Horio-kun? Does Fuji-kun know something I don't know? Because I don't foresee him having the power to-"

Before she could even finish the sentence, Kawamura had intercepted it and returned it, and if things had gone in slow-motion before, they were in fast forward now. Quinn flinched as racket met ball, and found herself with her fingers laced in the fence in worry before a wide grin spread across her face. "Talk about flow…" she murmured, Horio and Valerie similarly ecstatic, the girl even sweeping the freshman up in a hug that spread a blush across his cheeks.

And then –

Fuji said something quietly to Kawamura, who was fired up even more now than before, and Quinn saw her friend's eyes narrow. He grasped Kawamura's wrist gently, and the taller boy screeched out in pain. Still serious, Fuji turned to the official, and said somberly, "We must forfeit this match."

And Kawamura, dejected and disappointed, surveyed his team before falling to his knees and apologizing, nearly breaking Quinn's heart in the process. She caught Fuji looking her way, and smiled gently. His blue eyes lingered on her shortly, and Quinn nodded to him in encouragement, not that he needed it.

"Uh, when you're done staring into his baby blues," Valerie flipped her hair over her shoulder and flicked Quinn in the ear. "Where's the nearest vending machine?"

* * *

"How're you feeling, Taka-san?" Quinn chuckled to herself as she heard Valerie ask him how he was feeling. "It looked like you sprained it pretty badly."

"A-ah, it's not so bad," he replied sheepishly. The shy boy was more mouse than monster without a racket in his hand, but he had insisted that Valerie and Quinn call him Taka-san. Valerie crushed on pretty much everything that moved (after all, a few hours ago, all she could talk about was how cute Fuji was), but her concern for him seemed genuine, and Quinn cracked a smile at them from where she was walking with Fuji. More than anything, she was just happy that the girl had forgotten about her family troubles, at least for the time being. Helping to keep her mind off of it was all Quinn could hope to do.

Eiji and Oishi had won their match decisively, followed by a junior named Kaidoh besting a Fudomine player who was faster than anyone Quinn had ever seen. Echizen had gotten hurt even worse than Kawamura-san in his match, and the team's coach and Sakuno had taken him to the hospital to get his eye fixed up before he joined the festivities. The Americans had been invited along to the party afterwards, if for no other reason than that Eiji had pitched a fit and begged Takashi to let them come as well.

"I enjoyed watching you play today, Fuji-kun. You were great."

"Saa… You're too kind, Palmer-chan. Thank you for watching."

"You should hear the way everyone talks about you. All I ever hear is how wonderful you are."

He chuckled. "You should hear how people talk about you, Palmer-chan."

Someone else called out his name, and they all entered the Kawamura sushi restaurant together, Quinn trailing a little behind him and slightly ahead of Takashi and Valerie, who were still chatting animatedly. They left the street behind for the warm interior of the restaurant, but Quinn couldn't quite shake the blush on her cheeks, and when anyone asked, she said she was just feeling a little warm.

* * *

 **jeepers sorry for the wait! thanks so much to MythologyBookworm and magicdemi-god223 for their reviews, you get my kisses and hugs and everything else! i hope you enjoyed this as much as i enjoyed writing it. i've worked a little more this week than i thought i would so that's my only excuse for why it was a few days' longer wait! i have a date i have to go start getting around for, so please tell me what you think in a review! thanks for reading my loves!**

 **-syrasha**


	7. 6: ameliorate

**i tried to proofread this one but i suck**

* * *

Quinn had skipped out on hanging out at tennis practice that day, Yumiko having asked if she had wanted to help bake a few pies. Quinn had heartily accepted. She had had quite a lot of fun with the tennis team after the preliminaries, and it had been just the thing to keep Valerie's mind off of her father's declining condition, but what Fuji had said had rattled her a little more than she was comfortable admitting.

" _You should hear how people talk about you, Palmer-chan."_

It had sounded innocent enough, but if she sat still too long, Quinn found herself dwelling on it and wondering what he could have possibly meant by it. He hadn't treated her any differently since, though, so she assumed it was a positive thing.

Perhaps she was just thinking too hard. Gray areas seemed to be an unavoidable side effect of being around him. Still, she couldn't complain. She had Eiji and Fuji, and Airi as well, but they were really her only friends at school so far. Quinn thought that probably it stemmed from a fear of speaking English or interpreting her mangled Japanese, mostly, except for maybe her classmate Honda, and Quinn knew for certain why Honda didn't really like her. Fuji may have mostly existed in gray areas, but he had made it fairly clear that he didn't approve of Honda's assumptions, and that had essentially made Quinn an enemy before the American had even done so much as look Honda's way.

Quinn briefly wondered how Valerie did it, navigating Hyotei with even fewer friendly faces.

"Now!" Yumiko's voice pulled her back to the present, and Quinn snapped to attention. "You can buy premade pie crust but we don't do that here. I make all mine from scratch."

Yumiko's deft hands kneaded the pie crust and then she motioned for Quinn to do the same. The blonde obliged, feeling a little clumsy but trying nonetheless. The pie took shape and when it was time to finally put it in the oven, they heard a rustle come from the next room over. "Probably Syusuke," Yumiko said offhandedly, and when Quinn looked at the clock, it seemed like Yumiko was probably right. Impulsively, Quinn looked to the bag of flour and then at Yumiko, who nodded encouragingly, a conspiratorial smile on her lips.

When the door opened, Quinn spun around, pulling flour from the bag and tossing it at the open door in one swift movement, realizing just a little too late that it wasn't her classmate coming through the door.

Quinn didn't think she had ever been so mortified.

"I-I am s-so sorry." The blush that came over her face was one for the history books, and the boy who she had just covered in flour didn't even look mad so much as confused and a little shell-shocked.

"Who the hell even are you?" he sputtered out, and Quinn bit her lip.

"Oh, Yuuta, you can't blame us," Yumiko said reproachfully. "You never said you were coming home tonight so I told her it was probably Syusuke."

"That doesn't really answer my question, Yumiko-nee-san." The boy, Yuuta, sighed, and wiped a line of flour from his forehead.

"This is Palmer Quinn, Yuuta. She's a classmate of mine, and a good friend." Of course, Fuji had shown up just afterwards. Quinn scowled.

Fuji brushed some of the flour out of his hair, and Yuuta practically growled, "Aniki."

Quinn's eyes widened, and her shame was momentarily forgotten. "You have a brother?" she asked Fuji, surprised. "I had no idea!"

"It never came up," Fuji said innocently, "Although I suppose I should thank him for saving me from such a fate."

Yuuta stalked past the three of them, Yumiko looking into the oven shortly before standing up. "Dinner will be ready in an hour or two, Yuuta."

"Okay," he said, and then disappeared into what Quinn assumed was his bedroom.

She looked sheepishly between Yumiko and Fuji. "I'm sorry. I thought that would be funny. I didn't even know anyone else lived here.

"Saa… it's not your fault, Palmer-chan. We never know when he's coming home. He goes to a boarding school." Fuji was quiet for a moment. "The pie smells great, nee-san."

Yumiko shook her head. "It was mostly Palmer-chan. I just supervised, although clearly not very well, since there's flour all over the place…" The older woman trailed off, and winked at Quinn, who was making a point out of not making eye contact with anyone.

"L-let me know if you need anything else, Yumiko-chan," Quinn mumbled softly and then made a beeline for Fuji's room, hoping to be spared any further embarrassment. She heard Fuji chuckle quietly behind her, and if she didn't know better, Quinn would say he almost found her embarrassment amusing.

"Okay anyway," Quinn coughed as he followed her in. "I'm sorry about kind of assaulting your brother. I thought I was pulling a prank on you. I apologized to him too, but he, uh, didn't seem receptive."

Fuji laughed, but didn't say anything on the matter. In his silence, Quinn kept speaking. "I started the poster for our project. Yumiko-chan helped me with some of it, so if any of it's wrong, you can take it up with her. Also, is this festival plan still on? Because I like Sakuno-chan and all, and I'll be more than happy to go to the festival with her, but I really would like to know what's going on." She was babbling now, still uncomfortable after the incident with Yuuta, and Quinn wondered briefly if Eiji was always uncomfortable and if that was the reason why he talked _so much_.

"Why wouldn't it still be the plan?" Fuji asked as if the thought of cancelling had never even crossed his mind, and Quinn sighed in relief. "Eiji was really excited."

Quinn chuckled. "That sounds like him. Airi-chan and Valerie are excited too. Airi is going to take the two of us out to find something to wear."

"Saa… I can imagine traditional wear wouldn't be the easiest for a foreigner to adapt to."

* * *

"I _don't understand_ , Airi." Quinn sounded desperate, and Valerie was feeling similarly. They'd been out and about the city for a few hours now, long ago having dropped speaking Japanese because Valerie got worse at it when she was frustrated. Specialty after specialty store, and Airi seemed to have friends in all of them.

"Look, we can stop once we find the perfect one for you. Just because we found Valerie's an hour ago doesn't change anything," Airi snipped, and Quinn sighed. The blonde had thought she'd been able to choose on her own (how silly of her!), but every one that Quinn had taken an interest in had been "cheap," "the wrong color," or, Quinn's favorite, "just wrong! How will you ever seduce Fuji-kun in that?"

That, of course, had just brought back memories of the conversation she'd had with the boy outside of the Kawamura restaurant, filling her stomach with warmth that she didn't quite understand.

Regardless, she let Airi drag her along, babbling about yukatas and how she was so excited to see Quinn in one and just when Quinn thought it was never going to end, Airi let out a reverent gasp.

Quinn had begun dissociating for another dressing, not even looking at what Airi had found for her lest she get attached and not be allowed to have it. At Airi's outburst, though, Quinn had to look in the mirror, and even she was a little surprised at what she saw.

"That's the one. It _must_ be the one. Don't you think, Valerie?" Airi asked, and Valerie nodded enthusiastically, although Quinn was sure it was just so they could all be done with the ordeal. Quinn snuck a glance at the price as it was rung up, and her eyes bulged.

"On second thought," Quinn said nervously, "Maybe this isn't the one…"

"Nonsense!" Valerie interjected quickly as Airi's gears started switching back to shopping mode. "It's on me!"

And, well, Quinn supposed she couldn't complain, because she got the yukata she had wanted and it was even free at the end of everything. Just a step behind Valerie and Airi, who were chatting happily, Quinn briefly wondered how she was ever supposed to leave such good friends behind, an image of Eiji and Fuji flitting across her vision, too.

* * *

"A-ano, Palmer-senpai, you have to sit still, or else this is going to hurt…" Sakuno had been more enthusiastic than Quinn had thought she would be about attending the festival, and even after Airi had cancelled, Quinn had had high hopes. Airi had said she was sick, and Quinn had believed her, especially after all the babbling through tears she'd had to endure over the phone. Only after ten minutes of reassurance did Airi finally apologize one last time and hang up.

"Yeah, Quinn, if you don't sit still, bad things are going to happen," Valerie grinned wickedly. Quinn shot her a glare. While Airi had cancelled completely, Valerie, too, was going to unceremoniously ditch Quinn once the three of them got to the festival.

"Yeah, um, is it okay if I leave you guys when we get to the festival?" Airi had asked, at least having the decency to look sheepish.

"Why?" Quinn was sure she had almost whined back, getting the news just off Airi cancelling.

Apparently Quinn hadn't been wrong about the spark between Takashi and Valerie, and the boy had asked if she'd like to attend the festival with him. It was hard to be mad at her then, Valerie's cheeks fired up and red. Quinn was happy for the other girl. Valerie had been having a lot of trouble making friends at Hyotei, an exception being some second-year that she'd met in one of the music rooms that she played piano with almost every day.

Valerie hadn't taken nearly as long to get ready, but Sakuno was having a lot of trouble with Quinn's hair, and the process was further slowed by the freshman stopping every five minutes to apologize for it taking so long.

"I'm just having trouble with the texture," Sakuno apologized again, "Nothing is sitting how it's supposed to."

Quinn waved off her apologies with a smile, and, when the blonde finally found herself looking in the mirror, she was almost speechless. When she didn't say anything, Sakuno, ever worried, started to apologize again. "I'm so sorry if it's not okay! I can do it again if you want me to!"

Quinn shook her head fervently, and gave Sakuno a radiant smile, and kissed the girl on the forehead. "It's perfect, Sakuno-chan. Perfect. Thank you so much."

Sakuno's grandmother had offered to drive them to the festival, and Quinn was struck by how much nicer she seemed whenever she wasn't yelling at people playing tennis. "Thanks for the ride, obaa-chan!" Sakuno exclaimed sweetly.

"Call me if you need me, Sakuno-chan." With that, Ryuzaki Sumire sped off, and Quinn finally took in the sensory overload of the festival. Great-smelling food, bright lanterns as dusk had already started to fall, and the sound of laughter all around left Quinn feeling almost like she was at a state fair with an Asian theme. It wasn't nearly as different as she had worried, although she did wonder if Valerie had ever been to a fair or if that was beneath her parents' wealthy standards.

The wide-eyed wonder with which she was absorbing everything led Quinn to believe the latter. When Valerie finally snapped back to reality, she scanned the crowd, face lighting up upon seeing Takashi. She waved enthusiastically to the boy and started walking towards him, turning slightly to wave goodbye to Sakuno and Quinn. Even from a distance, Quinn could see the blush tinge Takashi's cheeks, Valerie's wide smile not wavering.

"They're cute together, ne, Sakuno-chan?" Quinn asked the freshman, who agreed wholeheartedly. Moving on, she asked, "What do you think we should do first?"

"Well," Sakuno pressed a finger to her lips, "Do you want to get something to eat? The main event is the fireworks, but that won't be until it gets much darker."

Quinn nodded. "What about that stand over there?" The American pointed to a stand with a mid-sized crowd around it. "It smells great."

"Oh!" Sakuno lit up. "I love yakitori. That's a great idea."

While Quinn figured out what yakitori was, and Sakuno was happy to explain, on the other side of the festival, Echizen Ryoma was having an incredibly underwhelming time.

"Senpai, why are we here?" Ryoma was asking Fuji, but Eiji was almost always the one to answer, spouting some nonsense answer about bonding with teammates. Of course, Fuji mused, Eiji didn't even really know why they were there. The prodigy hadn't really expected Quinn to be a matchmaker, but her unexpected entrance into his life had been a surprise unto itself.

Oddly, she had somehow worked her way from "acquaintance" to "fairly close friend" in a rather short period of time. Even Yumiko had taken a liking to her, although that wasn't too strange. Yumiko got along with nearly everyone she came in contact with.

As the three tennis players weaved their way through the festival, Ryoma stopping every now and then and Eiji darting off at any distraction, Fuji did briefly wonder if it was easier to have more "normal" friends, or rather, friends like Quinn.

As though the thought of her summoned the girl, Eiji was the first to see Quinn at a yakitori stand, arm-in-arm with Sakuno, both girls smiling brightly.

"Ah! Quinn-chan, you look so pretty! Almost Japanese, nyah!" Eiji shouted cheekily after bounding towards them, grabbing the blonde in a hug. Quinn laughed brightly. Dressed in a cotton candy pink yukata with light blue flowers adorning it, she would have been indistinguishable from any local from the back if not for her blonde hair, which was even pulled up into a traditional style as well.

If Quinn was being kind to herself, she thought she would almost pass for pretty. Despite what Eiji had said, she didn't exactly trust the redhead's judgment.

Sakuno had clammed up the moment she saw Ryoma, and Quinn knew, once and for all, that her assumptions about the freshman's feelings for the boy had been correct. Quinn chattered blithely with Eiji, Fuji standing quietly with them, and kept an eye on the freshmen all the time.

"P-Palmer-senpai?" Sakuno's voice sounded shakier with Ryoma around, and Quinn turned, waiting for whatever Sakuno had to say.

"Yes, Sakuno-chan?"

"A-ano… I saw a clip at one of the other vendors that I'd like to buy. Do you think we could stop there next?"

"Of course, Sakuno-chan!" The opening was perfect, and Quinn seized it. "Why don't you and Ryoma-kun go on ahead? I just want to finish up my conversation with Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun."

Sakuno looked like she wanted to argue, but when Ryoma started leading the way, even giving the brunette girl a small smile, she began to walk away.

Eiji cocked his head to the side. "It's not like we're talking about anything important, Quinn-chan-"

Quinn slapped a hand over Eiji's mouth and shushed him. "Don't worry, Eiji-kun. This is all part of the plan."

"Plan?" Eiji asked, and then visibly wilted in fear. "Don't tell me that this was Fujiko-chan's idea."

The brunette boy shook his head, small smile in place as always. "Saa… Eiji, do you really think so lowly of me? Palmer-chan thought it would be cruel if we didn't try to get Echizen and Sakuno-chan on a date together."

"…O-chibi-chan likes Sakuno-chan?"

"Not yet!" Quinn said, matter-of-factly. "I think with time he will though!"

Quinn briefly wondered if Sakuno would be upset with her for the abandonment (the plan, of course, had never been to actually follow along), but Eiji, with his short attention span, quickly took her mind off of it. The redhead bounced around the festival, Quinn and Fuji in tow, and Quinn suddenly realized that, although it wasn't altogether unexpected, she was having a great time. Homesickness and culture shock aside, the brilliant moments outshone the horrible, and Quinn was sure that even Valerie, who had had a considerably rougher time adjusting, would agree.

Almost as though thinking of her summoned her, Valerie appeared, side-by-side with Takashi, whose blush appeared to have become permanently fixed on his cheeks. As quickly as they appeared, though, they were gone, never mind that Eiji's eyes never missed a thing.

"Eh, Fujiko-chan, was that Taka-san?"

"Ah… I'm not sure, Eiji. Perhaps you should go check and see?" As far as Quinn could see, Takashi and his date had already disappeared, but Eiji was off after them, and before Quinn knew it she was left alone with Seigaku's prodigy, who, she had to admit, looked even prettier once the moon came out.

Fuji didn't seem perturbed by it. In fact, once, Eiji was gone, Fuji took one look around and said, "The fireworks should be starting soon, Palmer-chan. I think they have a little different atmosphere here than at your Fourth of July celebrations."

If Quinn didn't know better, she would think that Fuji had almost wanted to get her alone, and she wasn't sure why, but the thought made her blush. Although, she mused, blacks and whites had always faded to shades of gray when Fuji was around, and while it sometimes left Quinn wondering where she stood with the genius, it gave Fuji a mysterious air that certainly explained why so many girls had taken a liking to him, even discounting his obvious aesthetic appeal.

"Eiji was right, you know. In traditional clothes, you look almost like a local," he said, and Quinn twirled a lock of blonde hair (one of the small bits left out of the updo Sakuno had put it into) around her finger, looking down at her feet.

"I do wish I fit in better here sometimes," Quinn admitted. "Most people at school won't even talk to me. I think my accent makes them nervous." Quinn hadn't really meant to confide in Fuji, but the words were just coming out now, and even with warm lights all around them, Quinn felt a little chilly. "I miss my family a lot. My sister was my best friend, and I used to tell her everything, and Eiji's great and all, but I can't really get him to stop talking long enough to confide in him." Quinn gave Fuji a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I guess you didn't really sign up for this when we agreed to go to the festival. I kind of dumped everything on you."

Quinn wasn't sure when it had happened, but when her gaze rose from her shoes to his face, Fuji's eyes were fixed on her, somehow gentle and intense all at once, and when he smiled at her, she met his gaze.

He was like a force of nature, and next to him, she felt like she was just lucky to know his name, let alone be his friend.

His eyes never closed, though, and as the fireworks began to explode in the air above them, Quinn chuckled nervously. Fuji still didn't speak, but his expression was warm, and Quinn supposed she would try her luck.

"…Fuji-kun?" Quinn asked, her eyes now trained on the skies above. She was sure, though, that she could still feel his gaze fixed on her.

"Palmer-chan?" He acknowledged her question, and when Quinn looked away from the fireworks, she met his eyes again.

"Do… do you suppose-" Quinn paused before she started over. "Would it be okay if I asked for a hug?"

He nodded, smiling like he always did now, back to the mask he always wore, and Fuji was even kind enough to act like he didn't notice the few tears she spilled on his shoulder, and when she finally pulled away, Quinn let her head rest on his shoulder. When he didn't protest, she left it there, staring up at all the lights in the air above them, breathing in the festival around them.

Having long forgotten that the intent of coming to the festival itself had been to set Sakuno and Ryoma up on a date, Quinn sighed blissfully. She switched to English, hoping that she could be more expressive in her mother tongue, and whispered, "Thank you, Syusuke." In that moment, she didn't feel so homesick.

Fuji's lips parted briefly, the sudden switch taking him slightly off-guard. "Of course, Quinn."

He wasn't surprised very often.

* * *

 **oops long time no see! i had my 21st birthday this week and my life got away from me. it was a great time but i'm glad to be back! thanks to neko1234, the anonymous reviewer. i appreciate everyone who reads this story, as it's kind of a great guilty pleasure of mine. i hope you enjoyed this chapter. let me know if everything sounds good, especially the pacing. i love to hear what you think!**

 **thanks for reading!**

 **-syrasha**


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